


The Dark Woods Singing

by fallingconstellations



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Animal Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Romance, Slow Burn, Zombies, but none of the boys I promise, this fic is vaguely inspired by the last of us, various side-pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 02:27:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16567853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingconstellations/pseuds/fallingconstellations
Summary: When a mysterious virus crosses the globe and infects 80% of humanity, Seungkwan and the patchwork group of people he meets along the way struggle to survive in a world that seems hellbent on destroying them.Meanwhile, Vernon may hold the key to ending the end of the world.(or, a seventeen zombie!apocalypse au)





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

> “All night I stretched my arms across
> 
> him, rivers of blood, the dark woods, singing
> 
> with all my skin and bone _Please keep him safe_
> 
> Let him lay his head on my chest and we will be
> 
> like sailors, swimming in the sound of it, dashed
> 
> to pieces.”
> 
> \- Richard Siken

 

  

 

It was two in the morning, and the beginning of the end of the world, though they would not learn the latter until nearly a month later.

Vernon was sleeping under a pile of blankets on Seungkwan’s floor at the time. Moonlight streamed through the open window, past the fluttering curtains, and painted the room with a soft and otherworldly glow, like a scene out of a dream. Seungkwan, however, was wide awake, perched on his lumpy second-hand couch with his legs pulled to his chest and his chin resting on his knees. 

While his friend slept peacefully below him, Seungkwan was lost in thought, mind a million miles away.

The two boys had spent the evening watching movies together at Seungkwan’s apartment, taking a break from their usually hectic schedules of university and part-time jobs to sit in their pyjamas and eat pizza like they had back when they were still kids. Most things had stayed the same since then – since seven-year-old Seungkwan had taken one look at Vernon and declared them best friends for life. Then again, some things had changed.

When they were seven, they had shared everything with each other, from packed lunches to sprained ankles to secret handshakes. Everyone around them had known that they were VernonAndSeungkwan, a package deal, and that where there was one the other was bound to be following closely behind. 

But twenty-year-old Vernon had drifted further and further away from Seungkwan, in ways so gradual that he hadn’t noticed until one day he had looked back, expecting to see Vernon beside him like always, only to find distance and walls he could not hope to climb.

Their movie night had been meant to change that. It was the first opportunity they had gotten to spend any significant amount of time together in over a month, outside of their sporadic texts and silent study sessions at the local library. Seungkwan had meant to ask Vernon what was going on, he really had, but for a moment everything had been back to normal, and it was so easy for him to forget that anything had ever been wrong in the first place.

So, instead of asking why Vernon had been essentially ignoring him for the last month, Seungkwan listened to him go on a tangent about the likely existence of aliens, nodding at all the right moments, and together they played Mario Cart and marathoned movies until Seungkwan had completely forgotten about all the weeks of awkwardness and stilted conversations that still lay between them.

He thought that Vernon looked beautiful then, washed in the gentle light from the television screen, its flickering colours reflecting across his face like stained-glass. He itched to reach out a hand to brush the stray piece of hair off Vernon’s forehead, but he stopped himself mid-movement, because that wasn’t something friends were supposed to do. 

Even though he had come to terms with his feelings for Vernon, he had long since given up on the possibility of those feelings ever being returned. Partly because Vernon had only ever had girlfriends before, but also because he was afraid. Afraid that making his feelings known would change everything, in a way that would make it impossible to ever go back.

Seungkwan tore his eyes away before Vernon could notice him staring, and glued them back to the screen. He didn’t look back until Vernon had fallen asleep, miraculously not waking up even when he rolled off the side of the couch onto the floor. He still lay there two hours later, covered in the blankets Seungkwan had gently thrown over him before returning to his position on the couch.

Seungkwan had only just started to fall asleep himself when there was a sudden sound, something terrible and deafening that broke through the silence of the night.

“What was that?” Vernon jerked upright, half-awake and looking around in confusion.

In a normal situation Seungkwan would have teased him for his mussed-up hair and the drool on his cheek, but instead, he ripped off his own blanket and rushed to the window.

Somewhere outside, among the sprawling buildings of the city, a research institute had gone up in flames.

That had been the beginning of the outbreak.

* * *

 

 

Unbeknownst to them, when the research institute blew up, it released an airborne virus that gradually infected the city, spreading out like an uncontrollable flame through planes and boats and buses and trains, reaching across the world with greedy fingers until there probably wasn’t a person alive without a trace of it in their bloodstream.

Soon after that people started coming down with a strange illness. The governments across the world were in chaos, trying to contain it. They snatched people out of hospitals and off the streets to cover it up, while the general populous went about their daily lives, remaining ignorant to what was happening right beneath their noses.

But they couldn’t contain it forever.

Seungkwan was in the middle of a university lecture when it happened.

He was only half listening to his professor drone on at the front of the room when his phone started vibrating in his pocket. Struggling to smother a yawn, he took it out, planning to dismiss the call, but he faltered when he saw Vernon’s name lit up on the screen.

He almost didn’t answer. They had gotten into a fight soon after their movie night, over something stupid that Seungkwan struggled to even remember. Even so, being stubborn, he'd been giving Vernon the silent treatment ever since. But this time, something stopped him from ignoring the call.

If he remembered correctly, Vernon was in the middle of his shift at a convenience store across the other side of the city. His manager made them leave their phones in a box in the back room, so if Vernon was calling him, it had to be for something important. 

Instead of ending the call like he had originally planned, at the very last second, Seungkwan hit accept.

“Hello?” Seungkwan whispered into his phone, standing up from his seat and hurrying towards the exit, drawing a glare from the girl at the end of the row when he knocked her bag over while moving past her.

“Seungkwan.” Vernon’s voice on the other end of the line was hushed and terrified. “There was a bus crash outside my work and – the people. There’s something wrong with them.”

“Are you alright?” Seungkwan hurriedly pushed open the door to the lecture hall and stepped outside. Worry rooted itself deep in the pit of his stomach at the panic in Vernon’s voice. Worry, not for the people in the crash, but for Vernon, who couldn’t even get a paper cut without feeling nauseous. “Did you call an ambulance?”

“I think...” Vernon stopped, struggling to get words out. “I think they’re already dead.”

“Shit. Were there no survivors?” Seungkwan’s worry grew until it was the only thing he could pay attention to, everything else around him turning to white-noise. Something felt terribly wrong, and it wasn’t just the bus crash. “Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”

“No.” Vernon’s voice was loud, but he seemed to catch himself then continued, quieter this time. “No. Don’t come here. Get out of the city.”

“What? Why?”

“Something’s happening. It isn’t safe, they’re–”

Suddenly the call went dead. Seungkwan immediately tried to call him back, then tried  again when that didn’t work, then again. But Vernon wasn’t answering.

Seungkwan didn’t even think twice about the rest of his classes for the day before he was fumbling his keys out of his pocket. As soon as he found them, he started running towards where his car was parked.

He vaguely heard his classmate Chan’s voice calling after him in confusion, probably wondering why Seungkwan was sprinting across campus at 10am on a Monday when he was usually half asleep and dragging his feet, but Seungkwan ignored him, not slowing his frantic footsteps until he reached the parking lot. He wrenched his car door open and had barely even put his seatbelt on before he was starting the car and taking off. 

Since he knew the way to the convenience store where Vernon worked by heart, due to his tendency of dropping by to annoy him during breaks between classes, Seungkwan didn’t even need to think. That was probably a good thing, because his mind was too busy coming up with a million worst-case scenarios to pay attention to anything else. Working on autopilot, he pulled out onto the main road.

Seungkwan briefly wondered over the amount of traffic when the streets were usually quiet at that time of day, but he was too focused on worrying about Vernon to spare it much thought. Instead, he kept his eyes firmly on the road in front of him. 

If he had been paying more attention he might have noticed the people around him acting strangely. Some were doubled over and coughing blood on the side of the street, while others rushed to their cars with their families in tow. Through apartment windows, televisions were switched on, flashing text that read ‘breaking news’ or showing serious looking newscasters talking over shaky footage of rabid people attacking anyone that strayed too close. In their cars, people listened tensely to their radios, but Seungkwan’s own radio was silent.

He drove until, around five minutes away from the convenience store, he came across a barricade of police cars blocking off the street. He slowed to a stop, then shut off the engine and pushed open his door.

There were a handful of police officers manning the barricade, standing with their hands on their guns, agitated and awaiting any sign of trouble. They didn’t seem to have noticed Seungkwan’s car pulling up. Instead they kept their backs turned to him, staring out into the streets beyond.

“What’s happening? Why’s the road closed.” Seungkwan yelled out.

“Turn around kid. Don’t you listen to the news? The cities’ being evacuated.” One of them answered, only half paying attention to Seungkwan before immediately turning his back on him again.

A look of puzzlement crossed Seungkwan’s face. Sure enough, when he hopped back in his car and turned on the radio, an evacuation order was sounding on repeat, on all frequencies. 

Icy fear spread itself through his veins. He wondered what on earth could cause something like this, and if it was anything to do with the bus crash Vernon had spoken about. 

He turned his key, restarting the engine, then did a three-point turn, pulling out onto another street to search for a way around the police barricade. He clenched his teeth together in irritation when he found that street to be blocked off too. Curiously though, this time there weren’t any police officers manning the barricade. 

Taking this as his opportunity, Seungkwan pulled over to the side of the street and parked his car. He climbed out, locking the door behind him, and set off on foot. It was easy for him to pass through the gap between the police cars, and the store wasn’t far from where he had parked, so he hurried his steps, tension finally starting to abate now that he was getting closer to Vernon.

As he walked, he started to notice the fact that the streets were abandoned. A foreboding feeling tugged at the back of his mind, overtaking the calmness he had only just begun to feel. He stayed quiet, walking quickly towards his destination.

When he finally reached the intersection where the convenience store stood in silence, shutters pulled down across its windows, a chill went down his spine. Empty cars littered the street with their doors ajar and occupants nowhere in sight. 

The only person Seungkwan could see anywhere was a police officer standing in front of the convenience store. Seungkwan assumed he was one of the people who were meant to be guarding the barricade he had just gone through. He was about to call out to him, maybe to ask for help, or even just to ask what the hell was going on, but before he could make a sound, someone came up behind him and pulled him off the street into the café he had been standing in front of.

“Hey!” He hissed, ready to fight whoever had hold of him, but a hand clamped over his mouth to stop him making any more noise. Seungkwan struggled in the strong grip, only for a moment, then he caught sight of the police officer again through the window and froze.

The police officer turned around, his head jerking erratically in search of the noise. There was blood all over his face, his clothes, everywhere, and Seungkwan felt like an idiot for not noticing it before. The man’s leg was very obviously broken but he didn’t seem to care, limping along with it dragging uselessly behind him. There was nothing in his face that looked even remotely human anymore.

The man started across the street towards the café, and the arm around Seungkwan tensed as the stranger who had hold of him started dragging him back, away from the windows.

Just before the police officer could reach them, a woman ran out of an alleyway across the street screaming. She tripped, then sprawled across the ground. She lay there in resignation, whimpering when two more people crashed out behind her.

Seungkwan could only watch in horror as all three of them set upon the woman, tearing into her with teeth and fingernails, and the gentle hand around Seungkwan’s mouth moved to cover his eyes. They stood there together in silence until the screaming finally stopped. When it had been quiet for some time, the hand dropped from his face, though Seungkwan couldn’t bring himself to look out the window again.

Numbly, he turned around to meet his rescuer. 

He was tall, around Seungkwan’s age, with soft brown hair, lightly tanned skin and kind eyes. Seungkwan thought faintly to himself that he would have found him handsome, if he hadn’t been so terrified.

His rescuer smiled tightly at him, probably trying to comfort him, but it looked more like a grimace to Seungkwan. He looped his hand loosely around Seungkwan’s wrist, and silently lead him further into the cafe until they reached what looked like an employee room. Inside, another boy, tall and thin with strong facial features, immediately wrenched Seungkwan away from his rescuer, brandishing what looked like a baseball bat and swinging it threateningly.

“He’s not infected.” His rescuer whisper-yelled, grabbing onto the baseball bat as it waved through the air and pushing it down until it hung harmlessly at the other boy’s side.

“How do you know?” Tho boy hissed in response, though he was trying to be equally as quiet. He took another step towards Seungkwan, who shrunk away, but his rescuer stayed firmly in between them, stopping the boy from coming any closer.

“Because I’d be dead if he was.”

“Exactly. What the fuck were you thinking Mingyu? I turn around for one second and you decide to play hero.”

Seungkwan had never heard such furious whispering in his life. To his relief, the boy with the bat had now forgotten about, or just decided to ignore, Seungkwan's existence as he rounded on the other boy called Mingyu.

“I couldn’t just leave him out there.” 

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Seungkwan began, causing both boys to turn towards him in tandem, “but can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

 

* * *

The boys – Mingyu and Wonwoo – sat him down and told him all about the bus crash and the horror of the last hour. Wonwoo had been working at the cafe, while his boyfriend Mingyu was waiting around for him to finish his shift, when they heard a loud crash. Across the street, a public bus had veered off the quiet road and into a traffic light.

They told him that some of people on the bus were infected with some sort of disease, causing them to attack the other passengers and anyone else who came to help. They weren’t sure how, but the disease spread to whoever got attacked, and soon the streets were overrun. Mingyu and Wonwoo only managed to stay safe by locking themselves in the employee room while everyone else took their chances running, either escaping in cars or falling victim themselves.

“Did you see a boy about our age come out of the convenience store across the street?” Seungkwan asked.

“It’s hard to say. There was so much happening at once.” Mingyu replied, wringing his hands, all his nervous energy manifesting into an inability to stay still. “We were mostly locked up in here the whole time. I only saw you when I went out to see if it was safe for us to leave.”

“Alright.” Seungkwan took a deep breath in, and stood up. He was still in shock, but if he gave himself time to think he didn’t think he’d be brave enough to go through with the plan that was forming in his head. “I’m going over there to check.”

“Are you stupid? Did you even listen to a word we just told you?” Wonwoo narrowed his eyes at Seungkwan in disbelief.

“My best friend works there. I have to see if he’s okay. You can either stay here and wait for those things to come find you, or you can come with me.”

Though Seungkwan was willing to do it by himself, he really hoped they would decide to go with him. There was safety in numbers, after all, and judging by Mingyu's willingness to help him before, and Wonwoo's fierce defense of his boyfriend, they definitely weren't the worst people to be stuck in that kind of situation with. 

“Do you have a car?” Mingyu asked hopefully.

“Yeah. It’s parked about a block away.”

Wonwoo sighed in resignation. “Then we’ll help you find your friend. But only if you promise to drive us the hell out of here afterwards.”

Seungkwan thought that was a fair trade, and nodded at Wonwoo. “I can do that.” 

With one hand, Wonwoo grabbed the baseball bat from where it was leaning against the wall, then grabbed Mingyu’s hand with the other. “Then let’s go.”

The three boys stayed silent as they crept towards the front windows of the cafe. 

The streets looked deserted. The infected people seemed to have disappeared, and the woman from before was nowhere in sight.

They left the building and made their way quickly across the street, constantly looking over their shoulders as they went, wary of anyone sneaking up on them.

When they finally reached the front of the convenience store only to find it locked, Seungkwan had to stop himself from cursing. After a minute of silently freaking out, he remembered the back entrance and wordlessly started pulling them towards it. They walked in tense silence until they reached it.

This time, thankfully, the door pushed open easily.

Inside, the convenience store was a mess. Produce was knocked off the shelves, and milk bottles had burst open and spilled across the floor. Then there was the blood. Seungkwan almost gagged at the sight of it, messy handprints and skid marks where bodies must have been dragged across the floor.

“It doesn’t look like he’s here.” Mingyu whispered, moving forward to stand next to Seungkwan. “He probably got to his car. A lot of people got out that way.”

“Vernon can’t drive.” Seungkwan said simply. He darted his eyes back and forth, searching the store for any signs of life. He found none, but his eyes eventually landed on a door, with a crooked sign that read ‘employees only’. “We should check the back room."

The two other boys exchanged worried looks but wordlessly trailed after him when he started moving towards it.

Seungkwan had to push forcefully to get through the door, since something seemed to be blocking it from opening, but when he finally managed to get it open, he almost wished he hadn’t. 

Inside the room was someone wearing an employee uniform. Seungkwan couldn’t even tell whether it was Vernon or not at first glance, because their face had been clawed at and was crusted over with blood. Seungkwan let out a shocked yell and jerked backwards when they shrieked and started rushing towards him. 

A hand grabbed onto him from behind and pushed him away from the rabid employee. A moment later Wonwoo was charging at it with his baseball bat. It connected with the things head with a sickening thunk of metal on bone, over and over again, until eventually it stopped moving.

After a moment of tense silence, Wonwoo spoke, voice shaking slightly. “So, they can be killed. Good to know.” 

Although Wonwoo didn’t look hurt, Mingyu soon rushed towards his boyfriend, searching all over his body for any sign of injury with worried hands, and speaking to him in a low voice. Seungkwan was too distracted to pay them any mind.

He'd caught sight of a familiar object in the corner of the room. He walked over to it as if in a trance, stepping over the body without care in order to reach it. It was a phone, with a cracked screen and a bent apart phone case that dropped off when he picked it up from the floor.

Inside the phone case was a polaroid picture. A beaming Seungkwan, with his arm thrown over a teenaged Vernon’s shoulders, smiled up at him. S eungkwan immediately recognised it, since he had a matching copy of the photo, which was taken at their high-school graduation, hanging on the wall of his apartment. He had no idea that Vernon usually carried it with him.

He took a moment to squeeze his eyes closed tightly, locking away the strong emotions he was feeling, before taking out his wallet and tucking the picture safely away. He returned it to his pocket, and although it was broken and useless now, he kept Vernon’s phone clutched in his hand.

“Listen. I’m sorry about your friend, really I am, but we need to get out of here.” Wonwoo said, looking mostly unaffected by the events of the last few minutes, but only if Seungkwan ignored  how hard Mingyu was clutching onto Wonwoo's hand to stop it from shaking.

“It’s not Vernon.” At his words, the other two boys looked at Seungkwan with pity on their faces, like they thought he was in denial or something, so he continued. “No really. This guy has a whole heap of tattoos. Vernon would never get one. He’s too terrified of needles.”

Sure enough, when they looked down to the floor, their attacker’s left arm was covered in swirling lines of colourful ink.

Seungkwan felt guilty about the relief he felt. He couldn’t help but think of the fact that out there somewhere were this guy’s family, friends or lover, and now they would never get to see him again. It was self-defence, and in that moment it had been him or them, but Seungkwan still felt like a murderer. 

“That’s good then. That means your friend probably got away.” Mingyu looked genuinely happy about that possibility too, as if Vernon was his own friend rather than a complete stranger.

Seungkwan guessed that was just the kind of person he was. The kind of person that would immediately care about the safety of someone he had never met, and put himself in danger to help him. Seungkwan felt immensely glad that Mingyu had been there to pull him into that cafe, rather than someone more selfish, or worse, no one at all.

“ I guess I’ll just have to find him some other way. Was there an evacuation point or something? I didn’t really pay attention to the radio.”

“We didn’t either. We were too busy avoiding the literal zombies to turn on the news.” Wonwoo replied dryly. “What about your phone? Have you managed to contact anyone?”

Seungkwan took it out of his pocket to check. The next person on his rather bare contacts list after Vernon was Chan, a boy a year younger than him who was in some of his classes. Seungkwan dialled his number then raised the phone to his ear, but all he got was the busy signal.

“The call won’t go through.” he told them. Next he tried both his parents’ numbers, one after the other, but those didn’t work either. “The cell towers must be down.”

The look on both Wonwoo and Mingyu's faces was one of frustration, but they didn’t look surprised. Seungkwan figured that they’d probably both tried using their own phones and had had no luck either. 

“I guess we’ll just have to drive to the next city over and find out what’s happening when we’re there.” Wonwoo decided. “You’re not going back on your promise are you?”

“Of course not. We’ll have to be careful getting to my car, but I’ll drive you wherever you want.”

“This may be a dumb suggestion,” Mingyu started hesitantly, “but maybe we shouldn’t go right away. The roads will be packed. Everyone will be trying to get out of the city. We’d probably just get stuck in traffic.”

“It’s not dumb at all.” Wonwoo replied. He reached up a hand and, almost subconsciously, brushed a stray piece of hair off of Mingyu’s forehead while he spoke. Seungkwan was reminded of not all that long ago when he’d wanted to do the same to Vernon, though their movie night seemed like a world away now. “We could camp here until tomorrow? I think we’ll be pretty safe if we lock all the doors and don’t make too much noise. Or at least, we’d be safer than we would be stuck in a car somewhere.”

They both looked at Seungkwan for approval, and he nodded his head. He wasn’t sure when they voted him as the one qualified to make decisions, but he wasn’t complaining.

 

* * *

 

In the next hour they carefully rolled what must have been Vernon’s coworker up in a blanket they had found in a cupboard, and moved him out of the employee room. It was done both out of respect and because they judged that to be the most defensible place for them to sleep, and didn’t want to do that with a body in the room. Then they made sure all the doors and windows were shut and locked tight. Nothing outside would be able to get in without a lot of difficulty and noise that would hopefully alert them to any danger.

T heir current location gave them access to plenty of food and water, at least. Wonwoo even found a few boxes to pack essentials – food, water and medicine – in, for them to take with them when they left, seeing as they didn’t know when they’d next have the opportunity to grab anything. They rationalised that it didn’t count as stealing since the entire store was pretty much trashed anyway. No one would really notice considering the chaos.

“So, you and this Vernon guy.” Wonwoo started, in the middle of packing away basically the stores entire supply of canned food, which Seungkwan handed to him from the shelves. Mingyu had left them to it, disappearing into the employee room to make them all instant ramen.

“What about us? If you’re implying that we’re like you and Mingyu, we’re not.” 

“You seemed pretty worried for you guys to be just friends.”

“Well we are.”

“But you wish you could be more?” Wonwoo teased.

Even though he realised Wonwoo was just trying to lighten the mood, he didn’t really feel like having that kind of conversation with an almost-stranger, so he didn’t answer. Sensing that it was a touchy subject, Wonwoo backed off and resumed his packing. 

For a few minutes they just stood there in tense silence. Seungkwan couldn’t deal with the awkwardness that had fallen over them, so he soon relented.

“Maybe.” He answered. The pause had probably been too long for it to make sense for him to try and continue the conversation, but he figured Wonwoo wouldn’t mind. “Either way, he’s all I have. I mean, I have other friends, and I love them, but Vernon’s different.”

“How so?” Wonwoo asked. 

Seungkwan had to pause for a moment, struggling to form an answer to Wonwoo's question, one that would appropriately communicate exactly what Vernon meant to him. He realised that his clumsy words would never be enough to convey something of that magnitude, so he decided to just go with the basics instead.

“We’ve been inseparable since we were kids. Me and my parents don’t really get along, and his parents live abroad, so we’re basically each other’s family.”

Wonwoo smiled softly at that, subconsciously glancing towards the employee room where Mingyu was bustling around, just out of their line of sight. “Well, for what it’s worth, I hope they fix this whole mess soon so you can find him and figure stuff out.”

Seungkwan smiled softly. “Me too.”

 

* * *

In the early hours of the next morning, the three boys left the safety of the convenience store. Mingyu carried most of the supplies, and and Seungkwan carried the rest, leading the way to his car while Wonwoo trailed behind them with his baseball bat.

T hey didn’t run into a single soul, living or dead, on their short walk. Seungkwan took it as a sign that whatever had gone down the previous day was almost over. They still remained silent as they packed their things and got in the car, only breaking it after Seungkwan had started the engine and driven off.

“You’re almost out of gas.” Wonwoo noted from where both he and Mingyu sat in the back seat. Seungkwan had almost made a snarky comment about feeling like their Uber driver, but he figured they probably weren’t in the mood.

“I know. I was going to get some more on my way back from university, but, well. Shit happened.” 

“Do you have enough to make it to the next city?” Mingyu asked, concern marring his features.

“I dunno.” Seungkwan chewed on his bottom lip in thought. After he came to a decision, he indicated, then made a right turn towards where he knew the nearest gas station was. Wonwoo let out a snort over the fact that he was still following the road rules, but Seungkwan elected to ignore him. “We can just get some more. I guess stealing from a gas station isn’t any worse than stealing from a convenience store.”

He just hoped that it would be abandoned, like everything else they had driven past seemed to be. 

From the moment Seungkwan pulled up to the gas station, though, he had a feeling that something was wrong. It was far too quiet, and cars lay empty all over the place. It wasn’t any different from what they had seen already though, so Seungkwan just brushed the feeling off as paranoia.

“I’ll do it. You keep the engine running in case we need to take off fast.” Wonwoo said, unbuckling his seatbelt. Mingyu looked like he wanted to protest, but Wonwoo had already gotten out of the car. 

For a few minutes it was fine, and Wonwoo pumped gas while the other two boys waited in silence, but then out of the corner of his eye, Seungkwan saw movement. 

“Wonwoo.” He said quietly, trying to get the boy's attention.

Wonwoo didn’t hear through the closed car doors, but Mingyu looked at Seungkwan quizzically, immediately tensing up.

Seungkwan wanted to write it off as a trick of the light, but then he saw it again. 

This time he couldn’t ignore it, and whipped his head around in the direction of the movement. Inside the gas station, he saw people. A whole lot of people who had been drawn towards the windows by the car pulling up, and were now staring directly at them.

“Get him back in the car.” Seungkwan whispered, and Mingyu wordlessly complied, immediately flinging off his seatbelt and pushing the door open.

“What’s wrong?” Wonwoo asked quietly, but that was still enough to set off the infected inside the building.

The automatic doors to the gas station hissed open, and grotesque figures started piling out and stumbling towards them.

“Get in! Quickly.” Seungkwan yelled, all attempts at being quiet now forgotten.

Wonwoo dropped the gas pump on the ground and managed to get himself and Mingyu back inside the car, but it was a near miss. The same second he slammed the door shut, a dozen bodies bashed themselves forcefully against the side of the car. Terrifying clicking noises emanated from the back of their throats while they tried to claw their way inside.

Mingyu yelped when one of the windows made a cracking noise, but Seungkwan slammed on the accelerator before it could shatter, wincing when he practically ran over a few of the infected people who had been standing in front of the car, in his hurry to escape.

Though the gas station gradually grew smaller in their rear view mirror, none of the boys relaxed.

“It’s okay. We’re okay, and look, you managed to fill it almost all the way up.” Seungkwan nervously rambled, gesturing towards the fuel gauge. His other hand was white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

Seeing that many infected people in one place crushed any hope he had of this whole thing being easily fixed, and at that moment he realised the gravity of their situation. To make bad things worse, in every new building they passed, he spotted more infected people, drawn out by the noise of the car.

“It’s just here right? It can’t have spread far in only a day.” Mingyu asked, voice small. 

Wonwoo tightened his grip on Mingyu, like he was afraid if he let go someone would snatch him away. “We’ll be fine. There must be people out there who are trained to deal with this kind of thing.”

“Then where are they?” 

Wonwoo didn’t have an answer for Mingyu’s question, and neither did Seungkwan, so they both stayed silent.

Their mood didn’t improve as they drove. Like Mingyu predicted, hundreds of empty cars were stacked almost on top of each other all along the main road, as if they had been abandoned as soon as their occupants got caught up in traffic. Seungkwan had to take back roads and drive over grass and footpaths to try and find a clear route. 

The amount of infected they passed didn’t decrease either. In fact, they only seemed to increase where hundreds of people must have gotten attacked while still stuck in their cars. Seungkwan internally thanked Mingyu for his suggestion to stay the night in the convenience store, which had probably saved their lives.

Finally, Seungkwan managed to get past the blockage of cars and out onto the highway. They drove in silence towards the next city.

 

* * *

It took less than half an hour for them to reach it.

When he caught sight of buildings in the distance, Seungkwan let out a sigh of relief. He knew that as soon as they could get to where everyone was gathered, they’d be safe, and someone would explain to them what exactly was going on. He’d find Vernon and his other friends, and everything would be okay.

Seungkwan had decided to drive them through to the city’s exhibition hall. It was one of the biggest buildings and usually housed major events and gatherings, so he thought it would be the most logical place for people to gather in an emergency. They had to drive a reasonable distance to get there though, past countless other buildings and houses.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Mingyu asked after a while. He leaned over in his seat until he ended up basically sitting across Wonwoo’s lap, while he tried to get a good look at the houses that they were now driving past.

Even from that distance they looked trashed, with smashed windows and doors hanging off their hinges. Seungkwan didn’t know whether it was a good or a bad thing that there were no people in sight. 

“Yeah. We’re seeing it.” Wonwoo said quietly.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. They didn’t need to say anything else; they were all thinking the same thing anyway.

As they got closer to the city centre, the situation only began to look worse. There was broken glass all over the ground, and more abandoned cars everywhere. Worst of all, the infected that had been lurking in the shadows started shrieking and chasing after their car, drawn out by the noise of its engine. 

Whichever way they turned, there were more of them, with disfigured limbs, blood on their clothes, and vacancy in their eyes. Some of them looked like officials; uniformed police and military officers with guns clutched in stiff hands, hanging limply at their sides, or people in hazmat suits and gas masks. Seungkwan realised that they must have been some of the people sent to try and stop the disease spreading further. From the looks of it, they hadn’t been very successful.

“This can’t be happening.” Frustrated tears started forming in Seungkwan's eyes, but he tried to blink them away. Panicking now wasn’t going to help anybody.

“Try the radio again.” Wonwoo suggested, making frightened eye contact with Seungkwan in the rearview mirror. He looked as emotionally drained as Seungkwan felt.

They had already tried the radio a few times during the drive, only picking up static or prerecorded stations still playing pop music, but since they were driving through another city now, if anyone was still broadcasting they were bound to be able to hear them.

Seungkwan fiddled with the dials, bypassing more music and static until he came across a message. It was prerecorded, but it was obviously meant as an update on what was happening with the outbreak.

“-situation is only getting worse. Reports from all over the world are still coming in. We don’t know how, but the outbreak has spread to almost every major populated area. It’s- it’s everywhere.” The radio announcer’s voice was shaking by that point, and only got less intelligible as he went on. “All quarantine attempts have failed. I repeat, all quarantine attempts have failed. If you can get out of the cities, get out. Stay away from anyone who seems like they may be infected, or has had contact with anyone infected. Try to find a safe place to barricade yourselves until this is all over.” He paused again, breathing heavily before he managed to choke out, “May god help us all.”

Then the message stuttered to a stop, before starting up again, playing itself on a loop. Seungkwan turned the radio off.

As they approached the exhibition hall, Seungkwan could see that the glass doors and windows had been barricaded from the inside with wooden planks. There were more infected people than he could count surrounding the outside of the building, obviously drawn there by the sound and smell of the hundreds of people who must be trapped inside.

Seungkwan didn’t stop the car like he had planned. It was pointless, since they'd only get killed if they tried to get inside. Instead he drove until he reached the edge of the city, then kept driving.

“What do we do now?” Wonwoo asked. His face looked eerily blank, like he couldn’t fully process what was happening.

“Now we take care of each other.” Mingyu replied. He pulled his boyfriend gently to his chest and held him there, looking like it was as much for his own comfort as it was for Wonwoo’s. “We’ll get through this together.”

Seungkwan felt the tears he had been holding back finally begin to fall when he realised he was included in that statement too.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a note for you before you read
> 
> this chapter contains ANIMAL DEATH, which I've added to the tags, so if that bothers you, skip to the paragraph starting with 'At the other side of the cabin sat Seungkwan’s car' (you could paste that into 'find' if it makes it easier) and you should be fine from there. 
> 
> if there's anything else at any point you feel needs to be tagged, please let me know :)

 

 

**Nine Months Later **

 

Seungkwan crept through the woods, nimbly weaving between the trees with silent footfalls. His clothes were dark and worn, and throwing knives were strapped to his belt in leather sheaths, his weapon of choice, even though Wonwoo liked to tease him by saying that they were no match for his own bow and arrows. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Seungkwan could see a dark blur of movement. It was Wonwoo, who was keeping pace, still as quick and silent as usual despite his sprained ankle.

Through the trees in front of them, their target stopped grazing on grass. It raised its head, nostrils flaring and ears twitching in search of danger. When it failed to notice the two boys concealed in the shadows, it relaxed and returned to its grazing, lowering its guard. 

It was a small deer, younger than they would usually like to hunt, but they didn’t really have a choice. They had been running out of food recently, ever since they decided supply trips into the nearest town were too risky. 

The population of infected had grown drastically and the vicious scavengers that seemed to lurk around every corner weren’t much better. They had to choose between walking into mortal danger every time they needed supplies, or learning to make do with what they had. When it came down to it, it wasn't a very difficult choice to make.

Seungkwan raised his hand and gestured, silently informing Wonwoo that he wanted to take the lead this time. The gesture was just one of the many they had invented, mostly to help them communicate when they didn’t want to draw the attention of any infected lurking around, but they also came in handy when hunting. 

Seungkwan unhooked a knife from his belt, saying a silent apology to the deer in his mind. He aimed carefully, then sent it soaring through the air. It landed right on target, hitting the animal in the middle of its head, causing it to collapse to the ground with a soft thud.

Standing up from his crouching position, Seungkwan slowly emerged from the cover of the trees. Wonwoo followed closely behind him.

Wonwoo whistled, impressed. “Nice Shot.”

“Thanks.” Seungkwan said, but his heart wasn't in it. He didn't really want to be complimented on taking a life, even if it was the life of an animal that would ensure their own survival.

He crouched down beside it, checking it for signs of life, not wanting to prolong its suffering if it had survived somehow. When he found none, he unstuck his knife, wiping it off on the grass before returning it to his belt. Then he stood up and turned to face his friend. 

“Are you sure you can help carry this?” Seungkwan glanced down at Wonwoo’s ankle in concern. “I could always get Mingyu to do it.”

It was the end of the world and Wonwoo had injured himself, not while heroically fighting off the infected, but when he rolled his ankle on a rock while washing their clothes in the river. This was a fact that Mingyu had teased him incessantly about, grateful that it wan’t him being the clumsy one for once.

“I’m sure. You know Mingyu. He hates the sight of dead animals.”

Seungkwan sighed in exasperation. Even so, he had to admit that Wonwoo had a point. Though Mingyu had attempted to go hunting with them at the start, they soon found out it wasn’t really a good idea. For one, Mingyu was too loud. His heavy footfalls, and the fact that he couldn’t stop breaking sticks, always alerted the animals to their presence. 

He also just didn’t have the heart for it. He was far too gentle and empathetic for that kind of thing. During their first successful hunting trip, when Wonwoo managed to take down a large rabbit, Mingyu ended up tearing up and didn’t eat any of the food they prepared that night.

“You can’t shelter him forever.” Seungkwan noted, though there was no bite in it.

Wonwoo just rolled his eyes. “Let's stop wasting time. We should get back to the cabin while there's still daylight.” 

He grabbed one side of the animal, and Seungkwan grabbed the other. Together they hoisted it over their shoulders. They were unbothered by the weight, since it was only a short walk back to their cabin. They usually preferred to not stray too far from its safety whenever they went out hunting. 

After what seemed like months of constant running following the outbreak they had stumbled across it, nestled safely in the woods in the middle of nowhere, miraculously untouched by the disaster that had disrupted the rest of the world. 

It was stocked with everything they needed; Weapons, food, and even a beat up battery powered radio.Behind it sat an old well, still fully functioning, which they used for their water supply, as well as a small river crossing the whole length of the woods that they used to wash their clothes and bathe in.

The cabin had been their saviour, in a time when they weren’t sure whether they were even going to survive the week. Since they'd lived there, they'd been content, something they didn't think they would ever be again after the outbreak.

Seungkwan and Wonwoo soon reached the clearing in the woods where the cabin sat, looking peaceful under the setting sun. It was small and slightly worn, made from dark wood and mossy stone that had been cobbled together in an odd patchwork, making it look like something out of a fairytale. Despite its weathered appearance, it had obviously been well tended to across the years, though its owners had been long gone by the time the three of them had arrived. Sometimes Seungkwan wondered what had happened to them.

“I’ll take care of the rest, since you caught this one.” Wonwoo said, taking most of the weight of the deer so that Seungkwan could duck out from under it.

“Alright. But look after that ankle. You never know when we’ll have to run for our lives.”

Wonwoo snorted at that. He took the rest of the weight of the deer, adjusting it fully onto his shoulder. Then he waved lazily and trudged off towards an area they had cleared just to the side of the cabin. 

They'd created a small space there for preparing the animals they hunted, preserving anything they didn’t cook immediately by hanging strips of meat on a rack made crudely out of sticks and drying them out with salt and the sun.  It had taken a lot of trial and error at first, but the owner of the cabin left behind a few books on the subject in one of its many bookshelves, filled to the brim with everything they needed to know about surviving the outdoors. Everything except how to avoid being turned into mindless killing machines, that is.

At the other side of the cabin sat Seungkwan’s car, almost out of gas and collecting dust. Most of its windows were covered in duct tape, a poor attempt at repairing the cracks collected during run-ins with the infected. The noise from the engine drew too much unwanted attention, and gas was increasingly hard to find, so they hadn’t used it since they'd arrived there, instead reserving it for emergencies only.

Seungkwan took one last glance up at the sunset before he shivered and took that as his cue to head inside. He approached the cabin, then climbed the front steps and crossed the porch. He pushed through the front door, shuffling out of his mud-caked boots in the entryway.

Inside, the cabin was tidy, filled with mismatched antique furniture and shelves covered in all types of books and trinkets from the previous owners. The kitchen, living and dining areas were all in the same room and took up most of the space. The only other three doors in the cabin lead into a bedroom, storage closet, and a now useless bathroom, since they couldn’t get running water without electricity, which had gone down shortly after the outbreak.

Wonwoo and Mingyu had claimed the bedroom, for obvious reasons, and Seungkwan had been left to drag the old camping bed out from the storage closet and into the bathroom. It was a lot of effort, and not the nicest of living arrangements, but he'd wanted to avoid sleeping on the old and lumpy couch at all costs. Though he'd protested at first, pouting at them for what seemed like days to no avail, he had to admit he didn’t mind it too much anymore. He'd set up his own private space there, populated by the sparse belongings he'd collected during their travels. 

Mingyu looked up from where he was curled up in one of the armchairs with a novel clutched in his hands, roused by the sound of Seungkwan coming in.

“You got back later than usual.” Mingyu flashed Seungkwan a wide and welcoming smile, though the corners of his mouth were tense. The last few days, Wonwoo and Seungkwan hadn’t managed to bring anything back, apart from a few berries that were unpleasantly sour to eat. Mingyu was probably resigning himself to another night with little food. “How did it go?”

“Good. We’ve brought back enough for the next few days, I think. How about you? How's your garden?”

Mingyu's face lit up. He'd started a small fruit and vegetable garden out back with old seeds that he found tucked inside one of the cabinets in the cabin. At first, he just used it as an excuse to avoid going hunting with them, but Seungkwan could tell that he'd grown proud of it.

“It’s not doing that well ‘cause of the cold, but I'll manage,” Mingyu said. "I think I can keep everything alive for a few more weeks at least."

“I don’t know, I’m getting kind of worried. We don’t have nearly enough food left to last through the winter, or even warmer clothes.” Seungkwan said. He collapsed down onto the couch next to Mingyu’s armchair, desperately wanting to just relax after his long day of hunting, but his thoughts were too troubled for that. “We can’t even use the fireplace.”

That had been Wonwoo’s doing. Though they were relatively safe in the woods, being pretty far from civilisation and the other areas overrun by the infected, Wonwoo thought that seeing smoke swirling into the sky might attract scavengers to their location. 

Despite the inconvenience, Seungkwan had to admit it would probably be a good idea to follow Wonwoo's advice. T hey'd learned the hard way that people weren’t to be trusted and it was often better to avoid contact with them completely.

“I think we need to make another trip into the town. We should try to find some blankets at least.” Mingyu suggested. “I know it’s dangerous, but we didn’t get this far just to freeze to death.” 

Seungkwan furrowed his brow, considering Mingyu's words. Though he was the youngest, the decision of whether or not to make a trip into the town would probably fall to him, since the other two had unofficially elected him as their leader. Seungkwan would have felt flattered, but it sometimes seemed like they'd done it just so they could blame him, instead of each other, if anything went wrong.

Seungkwan got up from the couch and walked over to a small table across the room. From the bookshelf beside it, he grabbed out the novelty map they'd found in a trashed tourist information centre a few weeks before, unrolling it across the table and weighing it down at the corners with a few small books. Seungkwan considered it for a moment.

“Here.” He pointed his index finger to a small town on the map, and Mingyu moved until he was hovering uncertainly beside him, peering curiously over his shoulder. “It’s almost a day’s walk away, and we’d have to stay there overnight, but we’d have more of a chance of finding supplies, since we haven't searched the area yet. Every other place we’ve been to already has pretty much been stripped clean.”

Mingyu looked sceptical. “How do we know that this place will be any better?”

“We don’t,” Seungkwan admitted, “but we don’t really have any other options. We’re running out of time.”

Mingyu nodded to himself, looking serious, as if he had just decided something. “If you go, I’m coming with you.”

Seungkwan frowned slightly at that, but quickly schooled his expression. 

He usually went on supply trips with Wonwoo, while Mingyu stayed behind to guard the cabin, simply because the same things that made Mingyu bad at hunting also meant he had trouble around the infected. Especially when they had to kill or seriously injure them to escape from harm. The infected did still look mostly human after all.

“That’s not happening, Mingyu.” Wonwoo’s low voice sounded from behind them, startling them both.

They swivelled around to find him standing in the entryway with a serious look on his face, and a large wooden bowl of already prepared meat cradled under one arm. They hadn’t heard him come in, but that was to be expected. Wonwoo was very good at moving silently.

Irritation quickly flashed across Mingyu's features. “We have no idea what’s out there, and you’re already injured. It’s too dangerous for you to go, so it has to be me.”

“We’ve been over this.” Wonwoo stepped across to the mostly useless kitchen area, placing the meat down on the small counter, then crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m fine, it doesn’t even hurt. So there’s no point in you putting yourself in that kind of situation.”

“Why not?”

“You know you can’t handle it.” Wonwoo snapped. 

Seungkwan couldn't help but notice both of their voices had quickly risen in volume, and he  winced.

They didn’t fight often, and when they did they usually made up quickly, but Seungkwan always seemed to find himself stuck in the middle of it. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mingyu sounded defensive, and a little hurt by Wonwoo's accusation. “I handled it just fine all the other times. In case you didn’t notice, I was right beside you the entire four months we were fighting for our lives.”

“If you call handling it hiding behind us whenever we ran into any infected, then sure.”

It was Mingyu's turn to cross his arms over his chest, perfectly mirroring Wonwoo's stance, both of them on the defensive now. “Do you think I’m a coward? Is that it?”

“I didn’t mean - I’d never think that Gyu. Don’t put words in my mouth."

"I wouldn't have to if you just told me how you were feeling for once, instead of just blowing up at me every time you can't handle your own emotions."

"I just want to keep you safe.”

“You think I don’t want to keep you safe too?” Mingyu shot back. “You keep throwing yourself into danger to protect me, and I hate it. I’d never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

Wonwoo looked like he wanted to say more, but then he sighed, looking incredibly tired all of a sudden. His shoulders sagged in defeat as if he was a puppet whose strings had been cut, and he crossed the room towards Mingyu, stopping just in front of him. Then he took Mingyu’s hand in his own. “I know. I’m sorry. I'm trying to work on it.”

“I just wish you’d have more faith in me.” Mingyu was hunched in on himself now, looking much smaller than it should've been possible for his height to allow. “I’m not as brave as you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t handle it.” 

Wonwoo smiled sadly, squeezing Mingyu's hand.  “I’m not as brave as you think I am.” Wonwoo brought the hand that wasn’t holding Mingyu’s up to wrap around the back of his neck, rubbing his thumb down the side of Mingyu's neck gently. “I’m doing this because I’m terrified. You say you wouldn’t be able to forgive yourself if I died, but at least you’d be able to keep going. If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t survive it. That’s why I can’t risk letting you go out there.”

Seungkwan saw Mingyu’s face fall, upon realising what Wonwoo meant, and he took that as his cue to retreat to his room. He thought they probably wouldn’t want him there while they were having that kind of conversation.

Seungkwan closed the door quietly behind him and sat down heavily on his camping bed, letting out all of his tension in one long whoosh of air. 

Though they had been safer, maybe even happy, lately, the last six months had been a nightmare, and the world was a very different place than it had once been. They had all seen things that would haunt their dreams for many years to come, and they had all been separated from family and friends, not knowing whether they would ever see them again.

Seungkwan took out his wallet from where he always carried it in his pocket, its contents now empty apart from a single item. He flipped it open then took out the polaroid picture of himself and Vernon, tuning out the noise from the quiet conversation happening in the other room. Whenever he needed strength over the last six months, he would take it out and just look at it, to remind himself of happier times. 

Although it was probably a lost cause, Seungkwan still hadn’t given up on finding Vernon some day. 

At the beginning, when they were less wary of strangers, he would show it to anyone they met, and ask them if they’d seen the boy in the picture. No one ever had, until one day, a few months back, a young mother with her child shielded protectively behind her told him she’d seen Vernon travelling in a big group just after the outbreak. Though much time had passed, she joked that she’d never forget such a handsome face. Seungkwan had smiled, thinking to himself wryly, ‘I know right?’

He had seriously considered dropping everything right then and there, wanting desperately to rush straight to the area where she said she’d seen him, but Mingyu and Wonwoo managed to convince him against it. Vernon would most likely be long gone by then. 

But the knowledge that he could still be out there somewhere, alive, carried Seungkwan through his darkest moments. If he didn’t have anything, at least he still had that small spark of hope, and he has kept it tucked away safely inside of himself ever since.

Seungkwan was disturbed from his thoughts by a knock on the door, and he carefully tucked the picture away again. 

“Come in.” He called out.

A sheepish looking Wonwoo came through the door, carrying a plate of food in one hand. “I brought a peace offering.”

Seungkwan took it from him, but otherwise ignored it, patting the camping bed next to him to get Wonwoo to sit with him. “If this is meant as an apology, you have nothing to apologise for.”

“I do though, and not just for fighting with Mingyu.” Wonwoo sat down beside Seungkwan, and dragged one hand tiredly across his face. “I’m too stubborn. I know it can be frustrating sometimes." 

“Everyone has their flaws.” Seungkwan teased. “Except for me of course.”

“Yah,” Wonwoo nudged him with his elbow. “That’s not true. I could name a few for you right now if you want.”

Seungkwan tried to pout but he couldn’t quite manage to hold back his smile. 

“Did you make up with Mingyu?” He asked.

“Yeah. He’s still mad at me, but I convinced him to let me go with you.”

“How on earth did you manage that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Wonwoo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Seungkwan. 

“Gross." Seungkwan hit Wonwoo in the shoulder. “I don’t need to hear about your private life.”

Wonwoo cackled, his nose scrunching up in laughter, but he soon sobered again, his eyes going serious all of a sudden. “I just told him I needed more time. We’re going to talk about it more when I come back.”

Seungkwan sighed. "T he kind of life we live, we don’t have time. There could be a day when you _don’t_ come back. Or me, or Mingyu." Wonwoo winced at that, but Seungkwan didn't relent. "I’m not saying that to be negative, it’s just fact. You shouldn't wait to tell each other what you feel, because one day it might be too late.”

“Is this you speaking from experience?”

Seungkwan smiled sadly. “Maybe. There are a lot of things I wish I’d said.”

Wonwoo fixed his eyes down on the floor, an internal battle written across his face as he refused to make eye contact with Seungkwan. It was this general aura of uncomfortableness that informed Seungkwan that Wonwoo was about to talk about his feelings. “You know I love you too right. In a different way than I love Mingyu, but still.”

“Course I do. It's not that I don't appreciate it, but why are you telling me this?”

“I’m taking your advice.” Wonwoo stated. “I just mean- what I said back there. About not being able to survive without Mingyu. I didn’t think before speaking. You know I wouldn’t really leave you alone, right?”

He wasn’t one to be able to cope well with a serious atmosphere, but Seungkwan was relieved to hear Wonwoo say that, nevertheless. Even though he dearly hoped it was something they would never have to worry about.

“Do you promise?” He asked, using a childish voice to break the tension. He raised his pinky finger and wiggled it at Wonwoo.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, but still linked his own pinky with Seungkwan’s. “Promise.”

“Good. Let’s go eat then. I’m starving.”

 

* * *

 

Later that night, when they'd finished their food and cleaned up, the three of them sat cross-legged on the floor around the beat up battery powered radio they'd found in the cabin.

It could only reach one radio station, which still broadcasted somehow at least once a week at the same time of night, though its schedule was erratic and unpredictable. It played music, and sometimes gave survival advice, but Seungkwan’s favourite nights were when the broadcasters just joked around amongst themselves. 

Whenever they had the opportunity, and if they had batteries to spare, the three of them would tune in. If it was broadcasting that night they would all listen together and forget for an hour or two that the world had ended. 

Though they didn’t know who the three voices behind it were, they were thankful for them. Listening to their radio show made them feel normal again, even if it was only for a moment.

That night they could hear only two out of the three voices that usually broadcasted, which wasn’t unusual as the three tended to rotate between themselves. It was mostly just music being played that night, but Seungkwan didn’t mind. Music was very hard to come by, and he missed it.

The end of a song played out, gentle piano notes that trailed down in volume to nothing.

“That song was picked by Jeonghan.” Explained a tinny voice from the radio, ringing out across the otherwise quiet room. “To any listeners that haven’t been put to sleep by it, I apologise sincerely for his taste in music.”

“Today’s show is called ‘a warm glass of milk’ for a reason, Seungcheol. It’s _meant_ to be relaxing.”

“I told you to call me S. Coups when we broadcast.” Seungcheol whined. 

“You’re as bad as Woozi. Both of your radio names are ridiculous.”

“Then how come you call him by his?”

“Because he’s my favourite.”

The two continued to bicker between themselves for a few moments, seemingly forgetting that they were on air, which they tended to do sometimes. Seungkwan didn’t know if it was because they genuinely did forget, or if it was just because they didn’t think anyone was actually listening. 

Maybe they just did the show for their own amusement. Seungkwan could understand that. There wasn’t that much else available in the way of entertainment. He kind of liked the thought that only the three of them knew about it. Like it was a secret for them to keep all to themselves. But part of him hoped that other people out there would find out about it somehow too, and be comforted, like they were.

“What I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted,” Jeonghan started, and Seungkwan could almost hear the glare he must have been sending Seungcheol, “Is that we have some news for you all.”

“We’ve been hearing rumours lately,” Seungcheol added excitedly, cutting Jeonghan off,“about a place called Eden. People are saying there might be a cure there.”

The three boys listening in the cabin looked up at each other with shocked expressions, their jaws hanging open. A cure would change everything. It would mean an end to the suffering they had been through. It would mean a chance to return to the lives they had left behind.

“They may just be rumours.” Jeonghan quickly cut in, though he sounded like he was hesitant to put a dampener on  Seungcheol's excitement. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a little hope.”

Seungkwan silently agreed with Jeonghan. Hope was what had kept him going all this time, after all. 

“And with that thought,” Seungcheol concluded, “we’ve reached the end of our show for tonight.”

Seungkwan didn’t really pay attention to the rest of their closing comments. He was too busy gaping at the radio, and Mingyu and Wonwoo were both doing the same thing next to him. They were still tangled up in each other, completely frozen, like if they moved at all it would break the spell that had fallen over them, and at any moment, Jeonghan and Seungcheol would come back and say it was all a joke.

They didn't, but none of the boys bothered switching the radio off, even when it dissolved into static.

“Do you think it’s true?” Mingyu almost whispered, finally breaking the stunned silence.

“We have no way of knowing,” Wonwoo raised his shoulders in a shrug, “but I hope so. I really do.

“Me too.” Seungkwan added quietly.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, they woke up before the sun. 

Seungkwan packed a bag with food, water and limited medical supplies for the trip, while Wonwoo strapped his bow to his back, collecting his recently sharpened arrows in their quiver. The baseball bat he had kept ever since the cafe was left to lean against the wall nearby, now wrapped in barbed wire. He had given it to Mingyu, but it hadn't been disturbed in a long time, and it was covered in a layer of fine dust.

Seungkwan collected his own weapons, as well as the map, and they were soon ready to set off. Together, they stepped outside into the early morning light.

Mingyu walked with them to begin with, but they all stopped once they reached the edge of the woods.

"Be safe.” Mingyu told Wonwoo, pulling his boyfriend towards him so that he could kiss him gently. When Seungkwan made a playfully jealous noise, Mingyu pulled away, rolling his eyes, and planted a sloppy kiss on the top of his head too. “You as well.”

“Don't worry, I’ll keep him out of trouble.” Seungkwan replied, winking exaggeratedly, and Wonwoo scoffed. "We'll be back in no time."

"You promise?"

"Yeah, we'll keep each other safe." Seungkwan replied.

Mingyu gave them each one last tight hug before reluctantly stepping back to watch them as they walked away.

They started down the road away from Mingyu. Soon, the road curved, and they lost sight of him.

Together, Seungkwan and Wonwoo set off towards the unknown.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you're enjoying the fic so far. thank you to all the lovely people who have left comments and kudos, it means a lot
> 
> this fic is going to be pretty long, with a lot of plot, so strap in
> 
> thanks for reading <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say a big thank you to Taylor, who will be the beta reader for this fic from now on. you can find her on twitter @xo_tai <3

 

 

Seungkwan and Wonwoo arrived that afternoon when the sun was sinking low and pinks and oranges were spreading across the horizon, turning the sky vibrant like a watercolour painting. 

They had had a relatively easy trip there, only running into a few infected a few kilometres back that they easily bypassed. But the moment they set foot in the town they were on their guard, keeping their weapons drawn and darting their eyes around in search of danger despite the fact that the air around them was still and quiet, almost peaceful. Only the sound of the wind through the trees was audible over their footfalls.

It was a small town, the kind that you find in the middle of nowhere and would usually drive straight past, only stopping if you needed a place to rest on your way to somewhere else. There was a single main street, with a few smaller winding roads that branched off towards a handful of houses and businesses. Everything looked like it was built about fifty years in the past, and the whole population of the town probably would have fit in a single building. There was no sight of any of them now though, infected or otherwise.

While Seungkwan and Wonwoo searched through the first few houses, they remained cautious. They were too used to being hyper-aware of any possible danger wherever they went. But by the time they'd gotten through a few empty houses, they relaxed, lulled into security by the fact that they still hadn’t caught sight of anyone nearby. Their moods gradually lifted as their bags grew heavy with supplies.

“Find anything?” Wonwoo asked for about the tenth time in ten minutes, poking his head through the doorway of the ramshackle upstairs bedroom where Seungkwan was crouched down, rifling through the bottom drawer of a dresser.

Seungkwan stilled his hands where they were hovering over an old set of playing cards, untouched but covered in a layer of dust. He picked them up and lobbed the box at Wonwoo, who ducked out of the way, stifling his laughter. The cards spilled out of their box mid-air, fluttering to the ground like falling leaves. 

“Aren’t you meant to be keeping watch?” Seungkwan asked him. “I’ll be really mad at you if a bunch of infected get inside and trap us in here.”

“Don’t worry. This place is a ghost town.” Wonwoo replied, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “There’s nothing to watch for.”

Wonwoo ignored the playing cards, now spread across the ground behind him, and instead eyed the moth-eaten queen size bed in the middle of the room. He shouldered off his bag and weapons and placed them gently on the floor. Grinning at Seungkwan like a little kid, he went to bellyflop onto the mattress, but the moment he made contact with it, the old bed-frame buckled under his weight and collapsed onto the ground, kicking up a plume of dust.

It was quiet for a moment, then Seungkwan burst into laughter. “I wish phones still worked so I could take a picture of you right now. That was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.”

Wonwoo just grumbled incoherently, still face-down on the mattress, the tips of his ears growing red with embarrassment. He lifted his head up to look mournfully at Seungkwan. “I’m not even that heavy.”

Seungkwan had to agree with that. Wonwoo had been thin when they’d first met at the beginning of the outbreak, but after months of harsh living conditions and struggling to find food, the outline of his ribs were visible even through the shirt he was wearing. Seungkwan was suddenly struck by the memories of all the times Wonwoo offered his own portion to him or Mingyu when they didn’t have enough food, not taking no for an answer and telling them it was his responsibility as the oldest to take care of them any time they refused.

Seungkwan’s face softened. “If you’re going to be in here bothering me every five minutes, at least make yourself useful. I haven’t been through that wardrobe yet.”

Wonwoo groaned in exaggerated annoyance, but pulled himself up off of the bed and complied anyway. He walked over to the wardrobe and slid open its door, coughing when more dust particles flew out. They looked strangely beautiful floating there in the rays of sunlight filtering through the bedroom window.

Wonwoo bypassed a few women’s dresses, pushing them to the side, but stopped when he came across a mans’ long, black winter coat. He pulled it out and held it in front of himself, as if testing its size. It was slightly too large for Wonwoo, and the shoulders were too broad, but he looked pleased and stashed it in his bag.

“It’s like no one has touched this place.” Seungkwan commented from across the room. “I mean, almost all of the food is gone, but everything else is still here.”

Wonwoo turned to face him, scrunching up his face in distaste. “It’s creepy.” 

In the past somewhere so peaceful would have made them feel safe, but now it only filled them with suspicion. They were all too aware of the fact that, at any time, that quiet peace could be broken.

“I know what you mean. After we’ve finished here we should probably settle down for the night. I think we've found everything we were looking for.”

Wonwoo made a noise of acknowledgement. He started folding up a few stray shirts from the wardrobe to put into his bag, and Seungkwan zipped up his own backpack and put it on. He stood up and dusted off his knees. While waiting for Wonwoo to finish up, he made his way around the room, inspecting objects and furniture that he'd previously disregarded during his search for supplies.

Seungkwan studied the various photographs hanging on the walls or sitting in their frames on shelves, trying to imagine what the occupants of the house had been like, or how they might feel if they saw the two boys now going through all their things. They looked happy, smiling up at him from their wedding pictures. They probably would've started a family by now, and the beginnings of a Nursery were evident in one of the rooms downstairs. It made Seungkwan feel inexplicably sad. He couldn’t help but think of all the lives that would have been if the world hadn’t been so drastically changed.

When movement outside caught his eye, Seungkwan was pulled out of his thoughts. He placed the photo frame he had been holding back down on the nightstand with a soft thud, immediately on edge.

Not yet wanting to alert Wonwoo, in case it was a false alarm, he silently crossed the room to get a clearer look out the window.  Carefully, he leaned over until he could peer out of it while still remaining mostly out of sight. Seungkwan sized up the three figures he heading out of the sparse cluster of trees behind the house they were in. They were all young men, armed with various weapons and looking worse for wear, with torn clothes and scraped knees.

Seungkwan grabbed Wonwoo by the arm. He only raised his eyebrows at Seungkwan in a silent question as he was pulled along until they were standing with their backs flushed to the wall. 

Seungkwan jerked his head in the direction of the window. Wonwoo nodded in understanding, and in a practiced movement, he dropped down low, half crawling over to where his bow and arrows sat on the floor so he would be ready to act quickly if needed.

The boys outside didn’t look dangerous, more like they were just trying to get by. Seungkwan didn’t think they posed much of a threat, but he knew looks could sometimes be deceiving. He was busy trying to decide whether it would be safer to stay out of sight and wait for them to leave, or to threaten them away somehow, when he realised belatedly that he recognised one of them.

His breath caught in his throat and he turned to Wonwoo with wide eyes. Confusion spread across the other boy’s features, and Seungkwan opened his mouth to explain, but he couldn’t form the words.

“Stay here and keep watch.” He said instead, his voice coming out slightly strangled.

Seungkwan brushed past Wonwoo and rushed through the doorway. His footsteps were dulled by the carpeted stairs as he crashed down them, taking them two at a time to get to the back door. Crossing the living area, Seungkwan made his way towards it, then pushed it open gracelessly.

“Chan?” He called out as soon as he was outside, staring in disbelief at the boy who was now miraculously in front of him after all this time.

The three boys outside were caught by complete surprise, stopping in their tracks halfway to the house and immediately aiming their weapons at Seungkwan, a mismatch of pocket knives and other sharp objects. Seungkwan only then realised it probably wasn’t a good idea to startle people who were armed and whose nerves were on a hair-trigger.

It didn’t matter though. It took a moment, but recognition soon lit up Chan's eyes, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“Seungkwan?” Chan gasped in disbelief, a dozen turbulent emotions flashing across his features as if he wasn’t quite sure how he should react.

Seeing Chan again transported Seungkwan back to before the outbreak, when they used to tease each other during their morning classes to pass the time, stifling their laughter and sinking low in their seats whenever their lecturers called them out for being too loud. Seungkwan hadn’t realised how much he had missed him until that moment. At the sight of him now, only metres away, Seungkwan crumbled.

He crossed the space between them with his arms open wide, and Chan rushed to meet him halfway, stepping gratefully into the hug. Seungkwan pulled the younger boy tightly against his chest, burying his face in his neck and trying not to cry.

The other two boys still had their weapons half-raised, staring at the scene unfolding in front of them in bewilderment. Seungkwan knew that Wonwoo would have his own weapon aimed at the strangers from the room upstairs, but in that moment he was too distracted to care.

“I’m so happy to see you.” He choked out, stepping back to get a better look at Chan, inspecting him for any injuries and wincing at how thin and drawn he looked. 

“How - how are you here?” Chan’s voice was thick with emotion, eyes so wide that he looked much smaller and younger than he was, though his outward appearance told Seungkwan that that youthful innocence was probably long gone by now. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

 Someone beside them cleared their throat, and Seungkwan reluctantly pulled his attention away from Chan.

“I’m guessing you two know each other.” One of the strangers stated. He looked perplexed at the reunion in front of him, but seemed to decide Seungkwan didn't pose a threat, finally lowering his weapon.

“This is Seungkwan. We went to university together.” Chan explained, reluctantly detaching himself from Seungkwan's side. He gestured vaguely, first to the boy who had spoken, then to the boy standing beside him. “This is Seokmin, and that’s Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung waved cheerfully at Seungkwan with the hand that was still holding his small axe. It didn’t look all that threatening though, probably because of the wide and genuine smile on his face. Seokmin looked slightly more distrusting, eyes wide, but his mouth still quirked up into a quick smile.

“That’s Wonwoo up there.” Seungkwan felt the need to add, pointing up at the house. 

Wonwoo gave a confused half wave from his perch in the window, and the sight of him startled the boys who had no idea he had been there the whole time. Wonwoo disappeared from sight, probably heading downstairs to join them.

Seokmin, Soonyoung and Seungkwan all paused then, unsure of what to do now that they had finished exchanging introductions. The strangers sized each other up, looking for any sign that they posed a threat to each other, but they soon relaxed when they found none.

“We should probably head inside. It’s not a good idea to stand out in the open like this.” Seokmin suggested, already pulling Soonyoung along with him towards the house.

Seungkwan nodded in agreement, following after them. By the time they made their way inside, Wonwoo had just reached the bottom of the stairs. He stopped on the last step and leaned casually against the railing, aiming a slightly cold and detached expression at the strangers.

“Friends of yours?” he asked Seungkwan. 

Underneath Wonwoo’s calm tone, Seungkwan could detect a thread of nervousness. The three of them had been on their own for so long, and he had grown so wary of strangers, that any unknown face unsettled him.

“I’ve mentioned Chan to you before.” Seungkwan replied, resting his hand on Chan’s shoulder, and slight recognition flickered in Wonwoo’s eyes. “We can trust any friends of his.”

Seokmin and Soonyoung looked pleased by the stamp of approval, but Wonwoo still looked unsure. Seungkwan ignored him and turned to Chan and his friends with a smile. “We’ve pretty much stripped the place clean of supplies already, but we’ve found enough to share.”

“Did you find any food?” Soonyoung asked hopefully.

Seungkwan nodded, already taking off his backpack for them, and Soonyoung’s face lit up like Christmas had come early. Seungkwan didn’t need to ask about the last time the three boys had eaten, their appearances answering that question for him, so he gave them each a generous portion of the canned food he had found pushed to the back of a kitchen cupboard in one of the other houses.

The boys all sat down together on the ruined couch in the living room, Wonwoo watching with a disgusted but slightly impressed expression at the rate that the boys were shovelling food into their mouths. Seungkwan kept screwing his eyes shut and opening them again, just to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming, and that against all odds, Chan was really there, safe in front of him. 

While they were eating, the three boys told Seungkwan and Wonwoo the story of how they had met at an evacuation point, where they had been safe for only a day before being chased out by infected, barely escaping with their lives. They'd been travelling together ever since. 

The story sounded similar to their own, though the other three boys had never stopped moving, unable to find a place to call their own, while Seungkwan, Wonwoo and Mingyu soon stumbled across the cabin. Seungkwan’s face pinched in sympathy, thinking of all the things they must have been through, never having gotten the chance to rest or feel safe.

“Come live with us.” Seungkwan rushed out, cutting Seokmin off mid-sentence, causing Wonwoo to whip his head around to stare at him in surprise. “There’s a cabin around a days walk away, hidden in the woods. That’s where we’ve been staying. It’s safe. As safe as we can get these days anyway.”

Once Seungkwan’s words had sunk in, Soonyoung and Seokmin glanced at each other with cautious hope written over their faces, overwhelmed by the offer. 

Chan lurched forward to embrace Seungkwan. “Thank you." He said, voice thick with emotion.

“Seungkwan, can I talk to you for a minute?” Though Wonwoo’s voice was quiet, it still managed to startle Seungkwan. His tone was level, but Seungkwan could already tell he wouldn’t like whatever it was that Wonwoo had to say.

“Sure.”

Wonwoo pulled Seungkwan away from Chan. Together, they walked out of the room and into the kitchen, stopping to lean against one of the counters.

Wonwoo pitched his voice low so the other boys wouldn’t overhear their conversation. “I know Chan’s your friend, but we can’t take them with us.”

Seungkwan furrowed his eyebrows. “What? Of course we can.” 

“We have to be realistic. How are we going to feed three more people through the winter? We’re already struggling as it is.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Seungkwan said.

“No, we wont. Stop being impulsive and use your brain for once.” Wonwoo crossed his arms over his chest and straightened up, rising to his full height. If Seungkwan didn’t know Wonwoo like he did he would have been intimidated.“If we take them with us, we’ll starve.”

“You heard them in there. You can’t honestly say that you’d abandon them after what they’ve been through.” 

“If it’s what makes the difference between you and I, and Mingyu surviving, then yeah. I definitely can.”

Seungkwan took a step backwards in shock. Wonwoo at least had the courtesy of looking apologetic about it, staring at Seungkwan as if imploring him to understand. 

Seungkwan just shook his head in disbelief. “No. I’m the leader and I say they’re coming with us. End of discussion.” Seungkwan started towards the door, but stopped after only a few steps and turned back to face Wonwoo. “You know, I’ve never told you this but I looked up to you. I always thought you were so strong and selfless. Now I realise that I was wrong.”

He turned on his heel, and without another word, he stormed back into the living area, where the other boys were sitting in tense silence. Upon seeing their expressions, Seungkwan realised their conversation maybe hadn’t been as quiet as he thought it had been. 

“Is something the matter?” Seokmin asked carefully.

“Everything’s great.” Seungkwan replied quickly, glaring back at Wonwoo, who was hovering uncertainly in the doorway of the kitchen, as if daring him to disagree.

 

 

The atmosphere had been tense after that, and the boys eventually gave up on trying to have a conversation and settled down to sleep. 

Seungkwan stayed wide awake in order to keep watch, while the others stretched out across the floor in the living area, lying underneath the blankets Seungkwan and Wonwoo had collected that day. Wonwoo was the only one still awake. He was by himself towards the other side of the room with his back turned to everyone, while Chan, Seokmin and Soonyoung were sleeping pressed together in a tangle of limbs, drawing comfort from each others’ closeness.

The night was quiet outside, but Seungkwan’s mind was deafening. He didn’t want to think that Wonwoo was right, but left alone with his thoughts, he couldn’t help but consider the other boys’ words.

Seungkwan felt guilty about snapping at Wonwoo. He knew that there had been truth to what Wonwoo was saying, and that he was only trying to look after the three of them, like he had always done. But Seungkwan couldn’t leave Chan or his friends behind, even if it meant they might starve.

He shook his head to chase the doubts away. If they planned ahead and rationed the supplies, they were going to be fine. They had to be.

The night passed by quietly, and Seungkwan quickly grew bored of staring out the windows at nothing. After a few hours Seungkwan went over to wake Wonwoo up to take the next watch.  The other boy jerked upright, looking like he hadn’t gotten much sleep, but Seungkwan still refused to speak to him, ignoring his apologetic expression and settling down near the other boys. 

Wonwoo faltered in his steps, looking like he wanted to say something, but shook his head and went to take his place by the window. 

Pulling a blanket up over his chest, Seungkwan turned away from Wonwoo and closed his eyes. He was quick to fall asleep despite the thoughts racing through his head, and t hough Seungkwan was usually so tired that he didn’t dream, he did that night. 

He was at the beach he and Vernon used to go to together, the sun high in the sky and sand warm beneath his feet. He somehow knew that Vernon was right behind him as he walked across the sand, but every time he turned around to look at him, Vernon was always just out of sight, the sound of his laughter echoing teasingly, as if he was daring Seungkwan to catch him. Seungkwan smiled to himself. Though he knew he was dreaming, he hadn’t heard Vernon’s laughter in a long time, and the sound filled him with warmth. 

Then the dream twisted. The sky darkened and the air turned cold around him. Seungkwan heard a sound to his right, and he swivelled around in search of the noise, but he was only met with the ocean. He did a double take when he saw a small figure among the waves. It was Vernon, chest deep in the water. He looked like he was trying to yell something out to Seungkwan, but he was too far away, and the sound of the wind and waves washed his voice away before Seungkwan could make out his words. Seungkwan took a step towards him, but it was no use. The next second, a huge wave crashed over Vernon, sweeping him off his feet and out to sea. 

Seungkwan shot awake, the roaring of the waves transforming into the roaring of a car engine. He whipped his head towards the window to find that Wonwoo had fallen asleep again, his face pressed against the glass.

Seungkwan didn’t have time to feel angry. He immediately shook the boys on the couch awake, and pressed his finger to his lips, urging them to stay quiet. Then he crossed the room to wake Wonwoo up. Wonwoo jerked upright, looking around himself confusedly, and Seungkwan could see on Wonwoo’s face the exact moment he realised his own mistake. 

The sound of the engine was close, too close, and they hadn’t had enough warning to prepare. He could hear the car pull up in front of the house, like they somehow already knew there were people inside. Seungkwan looked around frantically, trying to remember where he had placed his weapons, but his eyes fell on something else instead.

They should have known there was a reason why the town had looked so untouched. Scavengers or infected would have already made their home there, unless there was someone, or something, to keep them out.That reason was right in front of him in the form of a security camera, concealed among dusty books on a bookshelf, its red light blinking at Seungkwan dully. He had seen a few around in the streets, and in other houses, but he'd just assumed that they weren’t working. Thoughts flickered through Seungkwan’s head as he attempted to figure out who'd been watching them and why, but he didn’t have time to come up with an answer.

Seungkwan grabbed his weapons off the floor, and the other boys hurried to do the same. They'd only just managed to arm themselves when they heard footsteps approaching the house.

“Back door.” Seungkwan hissed out. They all rushed to comply, stumbling half-asleep across the living room.

Once  they reached the door, they reeled back when they spotted four people already outside, blocking their escape route. Seungkwan noticed that one of them had a gun and froze in his steps.

He swivelled around, frantically pushing the others back in the other direction, but it was too late. The sound of the front door opening and closing again echoed through the house.

“What do we do?” Seokmin asked agitatedly. 

There was no time to come up with an answer.

A woman with a gun raised and aimed towards them stepped out from the hallway in front of them. She was flanked by two other tall men, their gazes sharp and eyes cold. They quickly blocked off the stairway to stop them from escaping upstairs.

At that moment, the four men at the back door finally managed to break the lock. They slammed the door open and stepped inside.

Seungkwan realised they were outnumbered, and watched with growing fear as the intruders spread out to surround them on all sides.

Seungkwan gripped Chan’s shirt and pushed him backwards towards Seokmin and Soonyoung, trying to stand between the three of them and the woman with the gun. He looked back to see that Wonwoo was doing the same on the other side, not taking his eyes off the man who was also standing with his gun raised.

“I know this looks bad,” the woman began, “but we don’t want to hurt you, we just want to talk.”

She was small, and looked relatively young, which should have made her seem less threatening, but there was something about her that sent a chill down Seungkwan’s spine. Maybe it was the fact that she looked desperate. He knew all too well that desperate people could do terrifying things.

“Put the guns away, then maybe we’ll think about it.” Wonwoo spat.

The womn raised her eyebrows at him, and looked pointedly at his bow and arrows, as if calling him out for being a hypocrite. “You first.”

Seungkwan saw Wonwoo’s hand twitch against his bow. He prayed that he wouldn’t try anything. Wonwoo was fast, but he wouldn’t be fast enough to beat a bullet. 

Wonwoo seemed to realise this as well. He grimaced and reluctantly placed his bow on the ground, before lifting the strap of his quiver over his head and letting that drop to the floor as well. One after the other other, the remaining boys followed his lead, placing their various weapons down. 

Pleased at how easily they had obeyed, the woman’s mouth quirked up into a smile. She nodded, and two of the men immediately darted forward to collect their weapons, dragging them away, out of their reach. 

Neither the woman nor the armed man moved to put their guns away. Seungkwan gritted his teeth in anger, both at them and at himself for being so easily fooled. To make things worse,before the boys had a chance react to the trick, the people surrounding them lurched into action, quickly grabbing them by the arms to stop them from escaping. The boys tried to struggle, thrashing their arms around and kicking out with their legs, but their captors were all a lot larger and stronger than them.

“I’m sorry for this, really I am, but you have to come with us.” Despite her words, the woman didn’t look at all sorry. Frantic maybe, but not sorry. “If you come quietly, no one needs to get hurt.

“There’s no way we're going with you.” Chan spat fiercely, and Seungkwan felt a surge of admiration for his bravery. Soonyoung and Seokmin, however, watched Chan with wide and terrified eyes, trying to will him to stay quiet lest he make the woman angry.

The woman just laughed and cocked her head, staring them all down. “I think otherwise.” 

She flicked the safety off on her gun and took a step towards them, and the armed man followed her lead. 

Though they didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing them afraid, the boys couldn’t help but flinch away. 

Their situation was only getting worse. Seungkwan tried to catch Wonwoo’s eye so they could figure out a plan, like they always did, but Wonwoo wasn’t looking at him. His fists were clenched tightly and his eyes were fixed on the woman in front of them.

“If you need us alive, you won’t shoot us.” Wonwoo said, sounding completely sure of the fact, his voice unwavering.

“Yes we will.” The look in the woman’s eyes left no room for doubt. She didn't look like she was bluffing, and Wonwoo’s expression faltered. “We don’t need all of you. Sure, some of you might escape unscathed, but are you willing to take that sort of risk?”

“What do you even want us for?” Seokmin asked quietly. Seungkwan hoped that he was just stalling for time and not actually considering going with them.

The woman let out a long-suffering sigh. “I can give you the basics, if it will make you cooperate." She sat down on the edge of the couch, taking time to gather her words, but she didn’t put her gun down for even a second. "We’re scientists from a facility called Eden. We have the beginnings of a cure for the virus, but we need people to test our findings on.”

Seungkwan and Wonwoo exchanged looks, the name 'Eden’ already familiar to them from the radio show the previous night. They should have known it was too good to be true. Sure, the scientists were working on a cure, but it didn’t mean they would ever succeed, and it didn’t excuse what they were doing now.

“Why don’t you just test it on yourselves, or your minions over there?” Chan asked from beside Seungkwan, incredulous. “What do you need us for?”

Seungkwan had predicted there would be more to the story than what the woman just told them. He was proved correct when she flinched slightly at Chan’s question.

“We might as well be honest with them. It won’t make a difference.” One of the men behind them chimed in. His voice wasn’t unkind, but he still regarded them with clinical eyes when he turned his attention on them. “In previous experiments, there have been… complications. We need as many capable scientific minds as possible. Each of us are too valuable to waste if anything goes wrong.”

“A lot of things must have gone wrong if you’re going to all this effort to kidnap strangers.” Soonyoung snapped. Seungkwan could see that he was clutching onto Seokmin with a grip so tight his knuckles were turning white. “If we go with you, we’ll die, won’t we?” 

The woman’s face was emotionless as she regarded them.  “It’s a possibility.” She admitted. “But sacrifices sometimes have to be made for the greater good. At least you would serve an honourable purpose, knowing you helped save the lives of many.”

Though Seungkwan desperately wanted an end the the virus, he was too afraid of what the experiments would entail, and the suffering they would surely put them through. Maybe it made him selfish, but he wanted no part in it. Despite everything, he still felt like a scared kid at heart. One who had been forced to grow up too quickly. Looking at the faces of the boys around him, two of whom he had only just met but still cared for, he didn’t want them to have to go through that either.

“I’d rather die here now than let myself be experimented on.” He told her. “We’re not going with you, so just let us go. I’m sure you can find people somewhere else to volunteer for such an ‘honourable purpose’.” 

The last two words were spoken with a sarcastic lilt to them, and the woman’s finger twitched on the trigger in response. Seungkwan screwed his eyes shut, waiting for a bullet that never came.

“I’ll do it. I’ll come with you.” Wonwoo shot out quickly, catching the woman by surprise, causing her to remove her finger from the trigger.

“Wonwoo, no.” Seungkwan hissed out.

The desperation in Seungkwan’s voice only seemed to cement Wonwoo’s decision further. He raised himself up to his full height and glared at the woman with determination in his eyes.

She smiled at Wonwoo. "I'm glad you're finally cooperating. You should talk some sense into your friends."

Wonwoo shook his head. “You didn't let me finish. I'll come with you, but I have one condition. You have to let the others go. I should be enough for now, right? You can find your other lab rats somewhere else.”

The woman cocked her head, considering his request, less hostile now that she was getting her way. “Of course. We really do prefer it if you come willingly. Your friends can go. You have my word.”

“She’s lying.” Seungkwan tried again, in a last ditch attempt to stop whatever foolish plan the other boy had come up with.  Wonwoo only took Seungkwan’s hand and squeezed it once, before letting go. 

Seungkwan took no comfort from it. It felt too much like a goodbye. 

Wonwoo was pushed forward, flanked by the man who'd previously had hold of him as he was pushed towards the woman.

“Alright. We’ve got what we came for, let’s go.” The woman told the men when Wonwoo reached her. She turned to speak to the man with the gun. “Don’t let them try anything. If they do, shoot them.”

Then, she grabbed Wonwoo. Turning on her heel, she pushed him towards the front door, pressing her gun to the small of his back.

The man with the gun waited until the other scientists had all let go of the boys and started heading towards the door as well. Then he began to walk backwards after them, his gun still raised. The boys tried to follow, but the man let off a warning shot that struck mere centimetres in front of them, and they recoiled back.

"Careful boys. I won't miss next time." He said.

Seungkwan realised there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop them from taking Wonwoo. For the first time since the outbreak, he felt the spark of hope he held in his chest get blown out, like a candle.

“Tell Mingyu I love him, and I’m sorry.” Wonwoo managed to say, looking imploringly at Seungkwan as he was dragged out the door.  Seungkwan could tell that the apology was meant for him as well.

Once the man with the gun was out of sight, the boys immediately rushed after them and crashed outside. They were too late. Seungkwan could only watch on in defeat as the car drove away. 

“We have to go after them.” Seungkwan choked out.

The other boys didn’t seem to know how to reply. They'd only known Wonwoo for less than a day, but they still looked devastated about what had just happened.

Seungkwan took an aborted step forward but his knees buckled, sending him to the ground with a thud. He just stayed there, letting hot tears roll down his cheeks. 

“We’ll figure something out. We can get him back.” Chan tried to comfort him, crouching down beside Seungkwan. He placed a hand gently on Seungkwan's back. “We know where they’re taking him. All we have to do is figure out where Eden is. Don’t lose hope.” 

Seokmin and Soonyoung nodded their heads vigorously in agreement. The fact that they all were so easily promising their help, especially to rescue someone they'd only just met, grounded Seungkwan. 

After what seemed like forever, he managed to pull himself together. He got up off the ground and wiped his tears away.

“We’ll get him back.” Seungkwan said determinedly, more to himself than the other boys, and that was a promise he was going to keep. No matter what it cost.

 

* * *

 

The four figures trudging up the worn path were silent and subdued, a dark cloud flouting over them, though Seokmin and Soonyoung tried to brighten the mood with a continuous stream of thoughts, constantly commenting on how beautiful their surroundings were, or just struggling to hold a conversation with each other to avoid having to walk along in tense silence.

As they made their way closer to the cabin, the sound of voices and footsteps brought Mingyu to its front door. He pulled it open before the boys had even reached it, probably having waited just inside listening for signs of their approach, since he had known that they were due to arrive back around that time.

“You brought guests?” Mingyu’s eyes had widened when he caught sight of them. He aimed his words at Seungkwan, whose heart plummeted at the sound of his friend's voice. Mingyu didn't notice though, smiling widely at the three strangers, far too trusting for his own good.

Seungkwan couldn’t even look at him, fixing his eyes to the ground. 

Mingyu was too distracted to figure out that something was terribly wrong yet. When he was only met with silence, he bounded past them impatiently, searching around behind them for someone who wasn’t there.

He turned back around and looked at them in confusion. “Where’s Wonwoo?”

  

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> and thank you again to all the people leaving kudos and comments. without you I wouldn't have had the motivation to continue this fic <3


	4. Chapter 4

 

Mingyu had been distraught for the whole first day after Wonwoo was taken.

He locked himself up in his and Wonwoo’s room as soon as they told him what happened, refusing to come out or speak to Seungkwan whenever he tried in vain to comfort the older boy.

He finally emerged the following day, but only sat on his usual armchair and stared blankly at the front door, looking lost in thought, and pretending like none of the other boys existed if they tried to get his attention.

Unable to take the tension, Seokmin and Soonyoung mostly just stayed outside during that time, exploring the woods together like little kids, though they lamented the fact that it was too cold to swim in the stream.

Seungkwan found comfort in seeing them relaxed and laughing, since at least something good had come out of that disastrous supply trip, but the two boys would send him sympathetic looks whenever they caught him watching. Chan alternated between joining them and trying to keep Seungkwan company while he scoured the guidebooks and maps in the cabin for any mention of a scientific facility or clues as to where Wonwoo might be.

Seungkwan hadn’t really slept much since they'd gotten back to the cabin. Instead, he chose to stay awake so he could think and plan even when the moon was high in the sky. At night, Mingyu holed himself up in his room while the three other boys slept side by side in a pile of blankets on the floor by the empty fireplace.

Seungkwan hadn’t made any progress yet, despite his lack of sleep. He usually preferred to ignore how different things were to how they used to be, since it was easier that way, but he let himself fully mourn the loss of how easy it used to be to just look things up on the internet whenever he needed information about something.

There was almost no chance of them figuring out where Wonwoo had been taken with the scarce resources they had. The thought sent waves of helplessness crashing over Seungkwan. He wasn’t going to give up though, even if they searched the entire country without finding any trace of Wonwoo.

He just wished he had Mingyu by his side so they could figure things out together, but the other boy wouldn’t even look at him - not that Seungkwan could blame him. It was still hard to shoulder Wonwoo’s loss on his own, and though there were more people than ever in the cabin, Seungkwan had never felt so alone.

As if summoned by Seungkwan’s thoughts, Mingyu’s door opened with a soft click. He stepped outside of his room, looking washed out in the early-morning light, his clothes rumpled and eyes dull.

“Did you sleep?” He asked Seungkwan, voice cracking slightly from disuse.

“Probably no more than you.”

Mingyu nodded slightly, the movement drawing Seungkwan’s attention to the dark circles underneath his eyes, which probably mirrored the ones under his own. He definitely hadn’t been sleeping anymore than Seungkwan then.

Mingyu shuffled over and sat down gently in the chair beside Seungkwan, who was sitting huddled under a blanket at their small table. Mingyu looked over confusedly at the bundled up boys still sleeping on the floor in the middle of the room, as if he had forgotten they were even there. After a moment of watching them thoughtfully, he turned back to Seungkwan.

“Eden must be close-by to where Wonwoo was taken from, so we need to head back there. There’s enough of us now that we can split up and search the area.” Mingyu said, as if he was continuing a conversation they'd already been having, instead of speaking to him for the first time after flat-out ignoring him for the last two days. Seungkwan figured he should be happy the other boy was even speaking to him at all.

“Not necessarily.” He told Mingyu reluctantly. “They had a car, so it could be anywhere, really. We don’t even know for sure what Eden actually is.”

“What do you know, then?” Mingyu’s words would have sounded pleading if his voice hadn’t been completely even and devoid of any emotion, like he was trying very hard to keep every single thing he was feeling locked-up in a tiny box deep in his chest, not letting a single bit of it out lest he lose it altogether.

“Not much.” Seungkwan replied, though he desperately wanted to give Mingyu good news. “They just said they were scientists and that they were working on a cure.”

Mingyu just nodded his head jerkily at his words.

Seungkwan realised that the sound of their voices may have been louder than they'd meant them to be, because the next time he looked over to check on the sleeping boys, Chan stirred and sat up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around in search of what had woken him.

When he caught sight of Mingyu, Chan startled, eyes widening slightly. They hadn’t really interacted much and Seungkwan figured he probably didn’t know how to act around the elder, especially considering the circumstances and the fact that Mingyu hadn’t exactly been in the best frame of mind over the last two days.

Chan looked unsure of what to do next, tossing up between just going back to sleep to avoid awkwardness or joining in on their conversation. Seungkwan smiled reassuringly at him, but Chan still elected to stay where he was, watching the conversation from his spot on the floor rather than make any move to join them at the table.

“If they’re scientists working on a cure, Eden must be some kind of secret government facility. Maybe even from before the outbreak.” Mingyu continued, looking between both Seungkwan and Chan now that he had both boys’ attention. “That’s the only explanation for how they were able to watch you through the security cameras.”

Seungkwan was surprised Mingyu even remembered that detail, considering how upset he had been during that conversation. He'd probably had a lot of time over the last two days to think about it, and Seungkwan sometimes forgot he was a lot smarter than they usually gave him credit for.

“How are we supposed to find it if it’s secret?” Seungkwan asked.

He hadn’t meant it to sound sarcastic, but he was tired, and he was so used to speaking comfortably with Mingyu that he easily fell into his normal patterns of speech.

Mingyu’s face went cold, closing himself off to whatever had made him finally break his silence and come out of his room. Seungkwan immediately wished he had thought more about what he had said before it came out of his mouth.

“Careful Seungkwan. I don’t deserve your attitude when It’s your fault Wonwoo got taken in the first place.”

His voice was still blank, which hurt Seungkwan far more than if he had gotten angry. If he had gotten angry, Seungkwan could tell himself Mingyu was just upset, and that he didn’t mean it. He could tell himself it was just like every other time they had bickered back and forth when one of them got on the other’s nerves.

“Hey.” Chan cut in quickly, “It’s not his fault.”

“Yeah, it is.” Mingyu snapped, startling Seokmin and Soonyoung awake. The cracks in Mingyu’s composure were finally showing, made clear by the fault-lines of pain that flickered across his face as he rounded on the youngest boy. “He promised me he’d keep Wonwoo safe.”

Even though Seungkwan already blamed himself, Mingyu’s words still hit Seungkwan hard, piercing through his chest like shards of glass. He knew he was the one who'd planned the whole trip, and he was the one that should have realised they’d walked right into a trap, but it was still hard to hear out loud.

“I’m sorry.” Seungkwan said quietly, avoiding Mingyu’s eyes, afraid of the betrayal he would see there. “I couldn’t keep my promise.”

Mingyu just took a deep breath in, like he was trying hard to stop himself from saying anything more. The anger that he was wearing on the surface like a mask slipped away, leaving behind an all encompassing sadness, and a kind of bone-deep weariness, that made Seungkwan itch to reach out to him, to comfort him. But before he could, Mingyu stood up from the table and went back to his room, the door slamming behind him.

There was silence in the room then, like Mingyu had sucked all the air out of the room when he left.

The boys on the floor, two of which still looked half-asleep and confused, looked up at Seungkwan with sympathy.

“He’s not very nice.” Seokmin stated simply.

He had said it so straightforwardly, and he had sounded so offended on Seungkwan’s behalf, that Seungkwan couldn’t help but let out a harsh laugh. But his words were the furthest thing from the truth.

Mingyu was one of the kindest people Seungkwan had ever met. He was just hurting, and though it was hard for Seungkwan to be on the receiving end of it, he could understand the other boy's need to lash out.

He couldn’t really compare the two, but Seungkwan did know a bit how Mingyu felt. He'd gone through something similar after the outbreak, faced with the fact that he would probably never see Vernon again. And they hadn’t even been together.

Seungkwan had internalised all his feelings, then, directing them back into himself, but Mingyu seemed to do the opposite, sending them outwards in the hopes that it would somehow lessen the pain he felt inside.

"Is there anything we can do?” Chan asked standing up to take the seat at the table that Mingyu had abandoned. “We travelled a lot. Maybe we came across something that could help you find him?”

“It’s not your burden to carry,” Seungkwan replied, “but thanks anyway.”

Following Chan’s lead, Soonyoung got up and took the seat on his other side. “It shouldn’t be yours either. Not alone at least.” He sounded fiercely sure of that fact too, displaying a seriousness which seemed so different to the smiley boy Seungkwan had seen so far.

“You were kind to us when it would've been easier and safer to let us fend for ourselves." Seokmin added, also getting up and completing the trio of boys now surrounding Seungkwan, determined to offer him their support. “I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that we’ll do whatever we can to help you get your friend back.”

It felt right too, that those three boys would be beside him. They felt like puzzle pieces fitting themselves seamlessly into the picture that used to be just him, Wonwoo and Mingyu. A picture that Seungkwan hadn’t even realised was incomplete until the other boys had found their way so easily into his life.

Seungkwan knew that with them by his side - and hopefully Mingyu too, once he had had time to come to terms with his turbulent emotions - that they could do anything. He didn’t feel alone anymore.

 

  
It wasn’t until later that afternoon though, that Seungkwan felt a metaphorical lightbulb switch on over his head.

The radio station. It was the only thing Seungkwan could think of that might help them find Eden. He though back to hearing Seungcheol and Jeonghan mention it during their broadcast. Maybe they would have information Seungkwan didn’t. Information that would help lead them to Wonwoo.

Seungkwan was overwhelmed with a sense of deja-vu as he reached for their map and unrolled it across the table, going through the same motions he had for the supply trip only a few days before, though things felt remarkably different now.

He figured that the radio station had to be in their area for them to be able to receive its signal from such an old and beat up radio. That would be a place to start at least. He moved a finger across the map, searching for anything that looked promising.

His finger came to rest on a hill a bit to the east of the town they had visited for their supply trip. It wasn’t labelled, since the map’s purpose was mostly for sightseeing and tourist spots, but he felt a surge of hope when he spotted a crude drawing of a radio tower - the only one on the map.

Seungkwan calculated the distance in his mind. Though it would be too far on foot, the fuel supply they had left in his car would probably be enough to get them there, and maybe even back to the cabin again if they were unsuccessful.

They could do it. If they drove to the radio station and found the boys who resided there, they could ask them how they found out about Eden, and if they had any clue where it was.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best they could do with the information they had, and with every moment they wasted they were less and less likely to get Wonwoo back in one piece.

Seungkwan nodded to himself, feeling a lot less like he was afloat in the middle of the ocean, now that he had a goal to aim for.

He cleared his voice, startling the three boys who were engrossed in playing a game of cards on floor by the fireplace. “I have a plan.”

 

* * *

 

Jihoon liked to walk the hallways at night when he couldn’t sleep, though they hadn’t needed to keep watch at night since they had first arrived, since the high chainlink fence topped with barbed wire and security cameras kept them pretty safe from outsiders.

The barbed wire seemed to have been added after the outbreak. There had been a group who found sanctuary in the radio station before them, judging by the strewn belongings and stored food and medical supplies that had been all over the place.

But something horrible must have happened to them, considering the fact that it was deserted when he, Seungcheol and Jeonghan had arrived.

That something horrible probably had something to do with the dozens of infected that often stumbled around along the perimeter of the fence, hissing and scratching with their broken fingernails at the chains now locking the gate firmly shut, though thankfully they usually gave up and went elsewhere when they couldn’t find a way inside.

When Jihoon thought about it, the area they were in wasn’t very safe at all. The boys probably would have moved on again after searching the building, but Seungcheol’s eyes had lit up the moment he caught sight of the rooms of radio equipment and recording booths. Jihoon would have been lying if he he said he didn’t feel that same surge of delight. He had wanted to be a producer once upon a time after all.

Jeonghan was just happy that there were actual mattresses for them to sleep on, collected and scattered around by the building’s previous occupants. He did have a soft spot a mile wide for the other two boys as well, Seungcheol especially, so there had been no disagreements when Seungcheol announced they were staying.

That, and the fact that the power in the station actually worked, gave them a pretty great incentive to make the building into their new home.

They had no idea how that was even possible. The only explanation they could come up with was that someone nearby must have managed to get a power plant up and running again, and the radio station was just lucky enough to be on the same power grid.

They didn’t really care too much about figuring it out though. They were just grateful to have running water again.

Seungcheol and Jeonghan had figured out that the radio station could still broadcast by accident when they were bored one day. They had been fiddling around with the equipment to entertain themselves, when Jeonghan hit a button with his elbow that caused the panels to light up.

After a bit of trial and error, and through Jihoon’s familiarity with similar equipment, they managed to get it to work, and ever since then they’d had their radio show. They turned to it to comfort themselves whenever the loneliness got to be too much for them, or just used it to entertain themselves with when the days became unbearably long.

Truthfully, Jihoon didn’t think there was anyone out there listening, despite the seriousness that they all approached it with, but it comforted to other boys to pretend there was, so Jihoon played along.

He pulled his jacket tighter around him. It was getting too cold to patrol the halls and he was about to call it a night and head to bed, when he had a strong urge to check on the footage in the security room.

It wasn’t unusual for him to feel all keyed-up and anxious like this. It was the same urge that sometimes had him up late at night checking all the windows and locks, or constantly looking over his shoulder and around corners whenever they ventured outside.

It had helped them out quite a few times, though Jeonghan still called his behaviour paranoia and discouraged it in case it got worse. But this time Jihoon decided to listen.

He changed directions and walked back the way he had come, pushing into what seemed like a supply cupboard, but really was a small security room that hid a single monitor flashing between a few different views of the outside of the radio station.

The security system had probably been installed to stop vandals, but judging by the graffiti on the side of the building, it hadn’t been very successful. Nevertheless, it was still helpful for Jihoon’s peace of mind.

He collapsed down into the desk chair and blinked wearily at the bright screen.

There was nothing out front of the radio station, the image of the front gate on the monitor looking still and quiet.

Then it flicked to the view of the front entrance, which they had boarded up shortly after they arrived, leaving a more concealed back entrance as the only way in and out of the building. The windows had already had built-in bars on the outside, probably because of how easy it would have been to break into the radio station without them, so at least they hadn’t had to worry about that.

Next, the view from behind the radio station filled the screen.

It may have been just a trick of the light, or his brain creating shadows that weren’t there, but Jihoon swore he could see a figure. Before he could figure it out for sure though, the view changed again, now showing the side of the building.

He had to wait for the image to flicker back, the technology so old and outdated that it only showed the view from one camera at a time, but when it did, his suspicions were confirmed.

Jihoon watched the figure for a moment. He could immediately see that whoever it was wasn’t infected. They moved with too much speed and grace, darting through the darkness towards the fence faster than he thought a person could move. The moment they started to scale the fence, Jihoon was spurred into action.

He launched himself out of his seat, down the hallway, then into the room where Seungcheol and Jeonghan were sleeping side by side.

“Wake up.”

Jeonghan was the first to rouse at Jihoon’s panicked voice, blinking blearily up at him. “Jihoon?  What-“

“There’s someone outside. Climbing the fence.”

“What?” Seungcheol grumbled, still half-asleep. “Infected?”

“No. Scavenger. I think.” Jihoon’s voice was clipped and urgent.

The two other boys got up quickly once his words had sunk in, and there was a moment where they just looked at each other, panicked.

This had never happened before. The infected had been more of a nuisance than anything, not having the coordination to climb a fence or the intelligence to find another way in, and no one had ever tried to break in.

But it would have only been a matter of time anyway. They had found the radio station and thought it a good place to look for supplies, so why wouldn’t someone else, too?

“Right. Where are they?” Seungcheol was the first one to snap out of his shock.

“Towards the back.” Jihoon answered.

Seungcheol nodded, then grabbed his hunting knife and darted out of the room with Jihoon and Jeonghan at his heels.

Once they reached the back door, Jeonghan unhooked a sawed-off shotgun from its place on the wall.

They had roughly planned for this kind of thing happening, though it was a lot different to having to do it in reality, but Jeonghan just nodded confidently at the other two before pushing to the front.

He unlocked the door and stepped outside, far enough that he would be clearly in the intruder’s line of sight, but not too far in case he needed to retreat quickly back to safety. Jihoon and Seungcheol stayed behind him as back up, though Seungcheol was already tensing up at the distance between them.

“Stop right where you are. Hands up.” Jeonghan aimed the shotgun out at the intruder who had draped his thick denim jacket over the top of the fence to avoid the barbed wire and was now in the middle of climbing over to the other side. He startled at the sound of Jeonghan’s voice, accidentally toppling off the fence and hitting the ground with a loud curse.

Jeonghan was bluffing. Though they had found the shotgun stashed inside, it was unloaded, and they were yet to find any ammo. But the intruder hadn’t caught on, judging by the fact that all the blood drained out of his face at the sight of the gun.

“Don’t shoot.” He spat out quickly, not even bothering to react to any possible injuries, worried that Jeonghan would take his free-fall as going against his orders. He raised his arms above his head, revealing that he was unarmed

“Whatever you’re looking for, you won’t find it here, so I suggest you go back the way you came.” Jeonghan kept up the charade, waving the gun threateningly, and even Jihoon had to admit he looked terrifying.

Jihoon expected the man -  more of a boy really - to get angry, or run off scared. What none of them had expected, however, was for him to instantly burst into tears.

His faced bunched up, a wave of hopelessness crashing over him, making him look a lot younger than his tall frame and striking features would otherwise suggest.

“You don’t understand.” The boy managed to say in between sobs. “I need medicine. I’ve looked everywhere else.”

Their supply of medicine was limited, so even though they weren’t cold-hearted people, Jihoon knew they wouldn’t be able to give any to him. Besides, the boy didn’t even look injured, give or take a few scrapes and bruises from his fall from the fence.

Maybe he’d just had a run in with someone infected and thought he could stop the inevitable. It happened like that sometimes - there would be a delay before you went completely feral, giving you far too much time to agonise over your fate before it happened. None of them knew why it occurred over differing timeframes, the disease spreading instantly sometimes, and other times taking a few days to completely take over. Either way, it would be best if they got the boy away from them as soon as possible.

But Jeonghan seemed to have other ideas.

“What do you need it for?” Jeonghan asked, faint edges of concern seeping into the stern facial expression he was still trying to pull off.

Jihoon rolled his eyes skyward. He should have known. Though Jeonghan could be tough on the outside, and sometimes pretended he was self-absorbed, on the inside he cared far too much about others for his own good.

“My f-friend,” the boy said. “He’s hurt. You have to help him.”

Jeonghan lowered the gun and looked back at Seungcheol and Jihoon questioningly. Jihoon was shaking his head, too wary of it being some sort of trap to steal their supplies or something, but Jeonghan seemed to find whatever he was looking for in Seungcheol’s facial expression, because he sighed and turned back to the boy. “Come inside then. We’ll see what we can do.”

That’s how Jihoon got stuck babysitting the stranger, who was now sitting on Jihoon’s favourite couch, a blanket draped over his shoulders, and a cup of tea that they usually saved for special occasions or really bad days clutched in his hands. Though he guessed the boy was having a really bad day, so it did kind of qualify.

Seungcheol and Jeonghan had left Jihoon to watch over him, while they went to drag out whatever medical supplies they still had. Who knows why they’d thought it was a good idea to entrust him to Jihoon, of all people, since he was thoroughly unequipped to deal with the boy’s overflowing emotions, though he had thankfully stopped crying by then.

“So.” Jihoon began uncertainly. “What happened to your friend?”

He immediately knew it had been the wrong thing to say, because the boy- who had told them his name was Jun - looked like he was about to burst into tears again. “He got stabbed.”

“Oh.” Was all Jihoon said. He wanted to ask more questions, but he thought that would probably be insensitive.

“We were escaping.” Jun added, sensing that the other boy wanted elaboration, but his words were spoken with a finality that told Jihoon he wouldn’t be getting any more information about the incident out of him.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, Jihoon searching for the right thing to say to the boy to comfort him. Jun had awakened some kind of weird protective instinct in him, the same way he must have affected Jeonghan and Seungcheol, judging by their complete willingness to help him. Jihoon guessed it was because Jun just looked like he didn’t belong in this kind of world at all.

Jihoon couldn’t tell him his friend would be alright, since he had no idea what kind of condition he was in, so he instead settled for awkwardly patting the kid on the head like he was some kind of stray cat.

Luckily Seungcheol and Jeonghan burst back into the room before he could feel too mortified by his actions.

“Okay. Here’s everything we have.” Jeonghan announced, piling everything onto the coffee table. “You’re in luck. Before the outbreak I was training to be a nurse, so just tell me what kind of shape your friends in, and I’ll do my best to give you what you need.”

“He got stabbed.” Jihoon supplied helpfully, because he didn’t think the kid could elaborate without flooding the room with tears.

Jeonghan looked a bit taken aback, but immediately started sorting through the pile of medicine, collecting a few things in his arms. Seungcheol decided to leave it to him and sat down on the couch next to Jun though like Jihoon, he looked unsure of what kind of comfort to offer him.

“You’re a nurse?” Jun asked Jeonghan hopefully.

“I got pretty close, but not really. Just a student.”

Jun still looked like Jeonghan had told him he was some kind of brain-surgeon, the way he straightened up, wiping any remnants of his tears away. “You’ll come with me, then, right? I don’t know what to do, and he’s really hurt.”

Jihoon knew instantly that Jeonghan would cave,  but he still thought he should try and discourage the older boy. “It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s not far.” Jun ignored Jihoon and grabbed onto Jeonghan’s arm gently, looking between him and Seungcheol with wide, innocent eyes.

Jihoon didn't think it was possible, but Jeonghan’s expression softened even more than it already had.

“Alright, alright.” Jeonghan said after a moment. “I’ll come with you.”

Jihoon had to restrain himself from letting out an exasperated sigh. Wherever Jeonghan went, so did Seungcheol, and Jihoon would surely follow.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh this fic changed completely from my original idea, but I hope you're enjoying the direction it's going in!
> 
> this is still very much a verkwan fic and i know you're probably wondering where Vernon is, and when he and Seungkwan will be reunited, so thank you for being patient. without giving too much away, I can say that Vernon will definitely appear very soon


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

“Are we almost there?” Jihoon asked, out of breath and internally cursing over how unfit he had let himself get in the months spent at the radio station.

For the past hour or so, Jun had been leading him, Seungcheol and Jeonghan on a winding path over hills and past ruined houses, towards where he said his friend was tucked away safely in some abandoned building. 

The group only slowed their relentless pace when they had to fight their way past a few lone infected, and though he hated to admit it, Jihoon was having a hard time keeping up. Much to his annoyance, none of the other three seemed to be struggling as much as him. That was probably because they were all unfairly tall, and he had to walk twice as fast to keep up with them. 

“It’s not much further.” Jun reassured them, eyes still fixed ahead. 

Jihoon was surprised the boy had even answered him, considering the fact that he had been completely silent up until then, only paying attention to the other three whenever he looked back to make sure they were still following. 

“You really went a long way to find medicine.” Seungcheol shot Jun an impressed look, his breath coming evenly, like this was just some leisurely stroll to him. “Your friend’s lucky to have you.”

Jun made a vaguely affirmative noise, but didn’t say anything else, too focused on making sure they reached their destination as quickly as possible. He hadn’t seemed to relax at all even as they got closer to where his friend was hiding. If anything, he only seemed to tense up more, probably worrying over the possibility that he would return and find no one there. Or worse.

They fell into silence again, Jun’s agitation weighing heavily on the rest of them as they made their way down the dusty dirt road. It was flanked on either side by trees that cast shadows across the ground. There was a soft breeze blowing, and every time the branches swayed, the shadows moved, causing the small group to dart their heads around constantly, the phantom figures conjured up by their imaginations keeping them on edge.

“There.” Jun broke the silence after what seemed like an eternity, pointing to a building looming up in the distance, tucked away behind a short driveway at the side of the road. Before they could comment, he broke out into a run towards it. 

Jihoon let out an annoyed groan, but quickened his pace anyway, as did Seungcheol and Jeonghan, the latter of whom was weighed down with a bag full of medical supplies that banged loudly against his hip with every step, making it harder for him to keep pace.

The building, if you could even call it that, was small and made of corrugated iron. It was more of a shed really, and Jihoon struggled to come up with what it must have been used for before the outbreak. Its double doors were chained shut, a padlock ensuring no one could get inside, and there was no other visible way in.

Jun skid to a stop in front of it, fumbling around in his pockets for a moment and giving the other boys enough time to catch up. He soon pulled out a silver key the glinted dully in the sunlight, and used it to unlock the doors, quickly flinging them open.

“Minghao.” He called out, louder than Jihoon was comfortable with, considering their were probably infected around. 

Seungcheol and Jeonghan seemed to share that sentiment, judging by the twin winces on their face as they all followed Jun inside. Jihoon felt dread settle in the pit of his stomach when his eyes fell upon the unmoving, curled up figure in the corner, laying on the ground under a thin blanket with his eyes closed. 

Jun dropped down beside him, his hands hovering over him uncertainly. “Hao?” He tried again, this time with an edge of panic tingeing his voice.

The figure stirred, and Jihoon let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. Minghao didn’t speak, but he did raise up a pale hand that he rested gently on Jun’s cheek, once he had woken up enough to recognise him. He paid no attention to the three other people in the room. 

The blanket fell away when he shifted, revealing a nasty looking stab wound on his side that Jun must have tried his best to treat, going by the ripped off pieces of fabric tied around the boy’s middle. He only looked semi-conscious, but still managed to smile weakly at Jun, looking visibly relieved that his friend had returned.

“Can you help him?” Jun asked Jeonghan, eyes wide and imploring.

The boy’s question caused Minghao’s eyes to flicker over to them. His expression at the sight of them made Jihoon believe that if he were in a better condition, he would be putting himself in between them and Jun. He had a kind of fierceness in his eyes that Jihoon hadn’t expected when compared with the quiet softness Jun exuded, especially considering he was so injured. 

“Who are they?” Minghao managed to croak out, pulling himself up so he was half sitting, one hand pressed gingerly against his side, the other clutching at Jun protectively.

Jun rested his hands on Minghao's shoulders and pushed gently to get him to lie back down. “I brought them here to help you. One of them’s a doctor.”

“Nurse. Well, kind of.” Jeonghan corrected. He lifted the strap of the bag over his head and made his way over to the two on the floor. He crouched down and reached out a hand towards Minghao, who immediately pushed it away, lips raising into a defensive snarl. “I know we’re strangers, and I get it if you don’t trust me, but Jun went a really long way to get you help. I can treat you, but you have to let me.” 

Minghao just stared at Jeonghan, sizing him up. After a long moment he nodded almost imperceptibly, and Jeonghan reached out again. This time, the other boy didn’t try to stop him.

When Jeonghan removed the crimson-stained fabric covering the boy’s wound, Jihoon couldn’t help but clench his teeth in sympathy. It didn’t look good, but Jeonghan had been a brilliant student, and would have made an even better nurse. Jihoon had every faith in his abilities, even with their limited supplies. 

Jun on the other hand went as white as a sheet, his eyes fixed to the angry looking wound, unable to look away even though he obviously seemed like he wanted to. It must have gotten worse in the brief time that he’d been away.

“C’mon kid.” Jihoon found himself saying, almost involuntarily. “Let’s go get some fresh air. Jeonghan will look after your friend.”

Jun seemed reluctant to leave Minghao’s side, but Minghao must have sensed that something was wrong. He reached up and squeezed Jun’s hand, showing no signs of pain on his face even as Jeonghan started removing the makeshift bandages. “Go on,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Jun nodded tightly, then stood up on unsteady legs. He stumbled over to Jihoon, who placed a guiding hand on his back and started pushing him towards the exit. 

Stepping outside, Jihoon took a moment to absorb the rays of sunlight, their slight warmth chasing away some of the chill that had started seeping into his bones as soon as they stopped moving. He pulled Jun down to sit with him, so that both of them were resting with their backs against the front of the shed and their legs kicked out in front of them. They sat like that in awkward silence while Jihoon waited on Jun to be the first to speak. 

Jun seemed like he had a lot on his mind, and there was more to it than just the fact that his friend was hurt. Jihoon had no idea how to approach him without causing Jun to close-up, and he knew that if he misstepped Jun would probably shove his worries down so deeply inside of himself that Jihoon would have no hope of dragging them back out again. He wasn’t normally delicate with feelings. He was straightforward and honest where he should probably be soft, and he didn’t know how to handle fragile things without breaking them. Seungcheol and Jeonghan were used to his bluntness, but he wasn’t sure how Jun would handle it, especially when he looked like he would fall apart if the wind blew too hard.

“You keep calling me kid.” Jun finally mumbled, avoiding eye contact. “How do you know I’m not older than you? Maybe I should be calling you kid instead.”

“It just suits you. Age doesn’t really matter.” Jihoon hadn’t even really noticed he’d been doing it, and made a mental note to bite back the word and stop himself from saying it in the future. It sounded too fond, especially when Jun was basically a stranger. “You looked pretty freaked out back there. You wanna talk about it?”

“No.” Jun said dismissively, pulling his legs up to his chest.

“If you think ignoring your feelings will make them go away, they won’t.”

“I know that.” Jun paused, taking in a deep breath, his eyes going far away as if he was stuck in some memory that pained him. “But it’s just hard. It’s my fault he’s hurt.”

“I’m sure it’s not.” 

“It is.” Jun’s voice was sharp,but the venom wasn’t aimed at Jihoon, it was aimed at himself. “If I didn’t make him go with me, none of this would have happened.”

Jihoon cocked his head slightly. “Go where?”

“We found a dumb flyer taped to the side of a building. Minghao said we should ignore it, that it was too good to be true, but I just…” Jun trailed off, blinking back the tears that were threatening to fall again.

“What did the flyer say?”

“It said that if we wanted the cure, we had to go to Eden.”

Jihoon was taken aback. “We’ve heard about Eden. A while ago we ran into a family that said they were on their way there. I guess the rumours aren’t true then.”

“They’re not. They don't have a cure. They just locked us in seperate rooms and did tests on us the whole time.”

Jihoon hadn’t bought into the whole Eden thing like the other two had, but he still felt struck down with disappointment. There was a secret part of him that had longed for it to be true, despite the unlikeliness of a cure ever being created in a world where there were probably fewer people than infected.

“How did you get out?”

“One of the scientists there has a son around our age. He helped us escape. We almost got caught though. That was when Minghao…” Jun trailed off again. That memory obviously difficult for him to talk about.

Jihoon could practically see the thoughts swirling through the other boy’s head head. Thoughts that made Jun curl in on himself, shoulders hunched and face pinched with guilt.

Jihoon rested a hand awkwardly on his shoulder, startling him out of the emotional tailspin he’d set himself on. 

“It’s not your fault Jun. It’s the fault of whoever hurt him.” When that didn’t get any reaction, apart from a few quiet sniffles as Jun tried to keep himself from crying, Jihoon tried again. “Take the energy you’ve been using to blame yourself, and use it to help him get better. That’s what he needs right now.”

Jun let a few tears escape, and they created tracks through the dirt on his cheeks. Though Jihoon hadn’t expected his words to do much, they seemed to help Jun somehow. He nodded at Jihoon and sent him a watery smile. “Okay. I’ll try.”

Jihoon wasn't sure what to do with the slightly idolising look the other boy was sending him, so he stood, brushing off his jeans. “Let’s head back inside then. It’s too cold out here.”

Jun nodded and quickly scrambled to his feet.

When they returned to the others, Jeonghan was finishing up treating Minghao’s wound, holding him up in a sitting position as he gently wrapped clean bandages around him. 

Jun immediately rushed to Minghao's side, taking Jeonghan’s place in holding him up. Then he began speaking to him in a soft and low voice that Jihoon couldn’t understand.

Jihoon hovered back with Seungcheol near the door, turning to the older boy. “Is he going to…” 

“Survive? Yeah. Jeonghan said the wound isn’t actually that deep. He only got so sick ‘cause they didn’t keep it clean.” Seungcheol explained. He brushed his hand through his hair, an unconscious gesture he made when he was thinking hard about something. “If he stays here like this though, who knows when it will get worse again. Hannie wants us to take him back to the radio station as soon as he’s stable.”

Jihoon paused, thinking it over. He knew Seungcheol would weigh his response heavily, and if he said no, that would be the end of it. Not that he was planning on it. “It would be the right thing to do.” He said simply.

Seungcheol’s answering smile was so bright that it looked like the sun coming out. “It’s settled then.”

Jihoon nodded, resigning himself to the fact that he would now have to look after four people who apparently couldn’t take care of themselves, instead of just two. Surprisingly, he found he didn’t mind nearly as much as he thought he would.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Wonwoo paced the length of the room, his footsteps thudding dully against the linoleum floor. 

He knew he should have felt relieved he wasn’t being being kept in some sort of cold cell. There was a soft bed and a functional bathroom, even heating. If he was in any other situation he would have been overjoyed, since it was more luxury than he’d been offered in a long time. But he didn’t like feeling trapped, and it was impossible for him to relax when he knew exactly why he was there. 

He comforted himself with the fact that he at least had an idea of where he was. He made sure of that by paying close attention during the car ride there, making a mental note of every twist and turn they took.

Eden was some sprawling research institute hidden in the middle of a private botanical gardens, bordered by a high-security fence. The buildings were ugly and made of concrete, all muted colours and sharp edges. It seemed like only one of the buildings was in use though. That was where Wonwoo had been taken once they’d arrived.

Before he could find his way back to the others, Wonwoo would have to figure out how to get out of the small room he was currently locked in, and somehow escape from the building unseen, when there were security cameras around every turn.

There wasn’t anything he could use as a weapon either, since the room had been stripped bare of anything that could possibly pose a threat. Wonwoo felt exposed and vulnerable without his bow and arrows, and the knives he usually kept hidden had been taken away from him when they were caught by the metal detectors at the entrance of the building. It was unnerving to know that he wouldn’t be able to defend himself if he needed to. 

His lack of options was causing panic to slowly build in his chest, but he shoved it down deep to deal with later. Instead, he sat down on the bed and waited.

He figured someone was bound to come around soon. He’d already been there for a few hours, and if they wanted him alive to experiment on, they’d have to bring him food or water at some point.

He took in a deep breath and watched as the light from the small barred window moved across the ground, shadow’s lengthening as time passed.

Eventually, there was a hesitant knock on the door.

Wonwoo scoffed, finding the situation hilarious for some reason. He didn’t know why they were knocking when the door was locked from the outside. Was he supposed to appreciate their manners?

There was silence for a moment, as if the person was waiting for a response. When they didn’t get one, the lock clicked. 

Wonwoo had to hold himself back from trying some idiotic escape attempt right then and there. He knew it wouldn’t end well, and even if he managed to get past the person on the other side, he had no idea what he would do after that. He had to think it through, bide his time.

“Can I come in?” A muffled voice called out.  The first thing that struck Wonwoo was how gentle the voice was, completely different from the cold and harsh voices of the other scientists he had encountered so far. 

Wonwoo sighed and got up from the bed. He crossed the room carefully, not sure whether this was some sort of trick or not. When he pulled the now unlocked door open, he was greeted by a face that perfectly matched the voice he’d heard, all delicate features and wide eyes.

“I brought you food.”

Sure enough, the boy in front of him was holding a metal tray, with a collection of fruits and vegetables and a glass of water placed neatly on top of it. Stood behind him were two others, a man and a woman, both armed and watching him carefully. Curiously though, they seemed almost as suspicious of the boy in front of him as they were of Wonwoo, their eyes darting back and forth between them.

“Thanks.” Wonwoo said carefully, taking the offered tray. 

He figured if he played his cards right, and acted all polite and compliant, he could gain their trust. It would be easier to escape if he convinced them they could let their guard down around him. 

He waited for the boy to speak again, or for the door to be slammed in his face, but the boy just stood there silently. He was chewing on the inside of his cheek like he was holding himself back from speaking.

“Is there something you wanted?” Wonwoo asked, growing impatient.

“That was actually what I was going to ask you. Is there anything I can do to make your… stay here, more comfortable?” The boy began awkwardly. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions. I can do my best to answer them for you.”

Wonwoo narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“There's no catch.”

Wonwoo wanted to refuse his offer purely out of spite, but he desperately needed more information, anything that would make getting out of Eden easier. At best, the boy would be someone he could make into an ally, and at worst, he was a weak link that Wonwoo could exploit, judging by his quiet and gentle demeanour.

“Fine.” Wonwoo moved aside, unblocking doorway.

The boy made to step inside the room, but the woman behind him reached out to stop him, her hand clamping down on his shoulder in a tight grip that looked painful. “Don’t try anything.”

This time, the boy’s voice morphed from gentleness into something far more biting. “How could I, with you two constantly breathing down my neck?” 

Wonwoo found himself reevaluating his earlier thoughts about the boy being a weak link.

“You tell me.” The woman spat back. 

“Come on, we don’t have time for this.” The man interrupted, stepping in between the two and holding his hands up placatingly to get the woman to calm down.

The woman rolled her eyes, releasing her hold on the boy. She reluctantly let him past, but slammed the door as soon as he stepped inside the room.

The boy just smiled apologetically at Wonwoo. “I guess we should start by introducing ourselves.” He walked towards Wonwoo and offered him his hand to shake. “My name is Joshua.”

Wonwoo ignored Joshua’s outstretched hand and instead turned his back on him. He crossed the room and placed the tray of food down on the nightstand beside the bed, electing to ignore the hunger pains in his stomach until Joshua left.

“I know I haven’t given you any reason to trust me, but believe me when I say I don’t want you to be kept here against your will any more than you do.” Joshua tried again.

Wonwoo almost laughed at that, turning back around to face him. “Really? If that’s the truth then you’ll let me leave.” 

“I can’t.”

Even though he knew it wouldn’t be that easy, Wonwoo still had to swallow his disappointment. “That’s what I thought.”  


Joshua sighed, looking regretful and more than a bit frustrated. “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I physically can’t.” He moved to take a seat on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest self-consciously. “I tried to help two people escape before you and it didn’t go well. I wouldn’t be able to try it a second time. I’m sure you noticed that I’m being watched.”

He didn’t sound like he was lying, and the guilt in his face looked genuine, so Wonwoo relented, softening the glare he had been sending him. Only slightly though. 

“I can’t leave, but I want no part in what they’re doing here.” Joshua continued. “Just ask, and I’ll help you in any way that I can.”

Wonwoo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Why can’t you leave?”

“My mother has made it very clear that she’s not forcing me to stay. But someone I care about is being trapped here. I can’t just leave him behind.”

Wonwoo filed the mention of Joshua’s mother away for later, instead focusing in on what he was more curious about. “Who is he? Is he here for the same reason I am?”

“In a way. He’s immune to the virus. They’re trying to replicate whatever it is that's stopping him from becoming infected in other people, which is why you’re here.”

“How is he immune? That’s impossible.” Wonwoo's feet had carried him closer to Joshua without his knowledge, until he was standing over him with an expression of pure shock on his face. 

“We don’t know. All we know is that he was travelling with another group, and I guess he must have been attacked by a bunch of infected at some point, but he never turned. My mother heard about him somehow and brought him here.” 

If the boy was immune, that meant there was something that could stop the virus. Wonwoo didn’t know how to feel about that piece of information, considering the circumstances. But he still had questions, so he pushed those thoughts aside, choosing to postpone his inevitable freakout until later. 

“If he’s the only thing stopping you from leaving, why don’t you just take him with you?”

“If you had the key to saving the world, would you leave it unguarded?” Joshua asked sarcastically. “They have him under such tight security that it would be impossible for me to get him out by myself. Otherwise I would have done it already.”

Wonwoo rubbed at his temple. All the information that had been shoved at him in the span of a short conversation was giving him a headache, and there were still so many things he didn’t know or understand. “How long has this all been going on?”

“They’ve been trying to find a cure ever since the outbreak, but my mother only brought Vernon here about two months ago.”

Wonwoo stilled at the name - a name he had become so used to hearing ever since he'd met Seungkwan. “His name’s Vernon?"

“Yeah. Why?”

There was no way it was the same Vernon. He had to be someone else, but Wonwoo still needed to know. “This is going to sound weird, but can you take me to him?”

Joshua shook his head. “They wouldn’t let you within a hundred feet of him, even if you were with me. He’s too important.”

Wonwoo knew he should just let it go, but there was still a small part of him that couldn’t help but wonder, and it would drive him crazy if he never confirmed it with his own two eyes. “Does he have a security camera in his room?”

Joshua seemed to catch on to Wonwoo’s idea quickly. “Yeah. It would be difficult, but I think I know a way to show you the security feed. Why do you even want to see him though?”

“My friend used to know someone called Vernon before the outbreak. It’s probably too much of a coincidence to be the same person, but I need to know for sure.”

Joshua didn’t look fully convinced, but he did say that he would help Wonwoo in any way he could, which seemed to win out in the end. “I’ll see what I can do.”

 

 

* * *

 

Much later in the night, or maybe early the next morning, Wonwoo was startled awake by the sound of someone fiddling with the lock on his door.

He shot up, looking around in confusion for a moment, still half asleep and disorientated. Before he could get up from the bed, the door opened, and light from the hallway leaked into the room. 

Once his eyes had fully adjusted, Wonwoo could make out Joshua standing in the doorway. He came inside, shutting the door behind him, and Wonwoo noticed that he was carrying something that looked like an iPad in his hand. He approached Wonwoo and sat down at the end of his bed.

“Sorry for waking you, but this is the only time I could show you this without getting caught.” Joshua told him, keeping his voice low and quiet. He gestured to the device in his hand. “I managed to hack into the security feed.”

“It’s fine.” Wonwoo was too tired to ask the other boy how he’d done it, so he just swung his legs over the side of the bed and moved so that he was sitting next to him. "Show it to me then."

Joshua fiddled with the the device for a moment, brightening the screen and turning it around so that it was facing Wonwoo.

Wonwoo squinted at the image on the screen. The picture was clear because the light in the room was on, despite the late hour, and its occupant was standing fairly close the camera. Joshua must have instructed him to do that so it would be easier for Wonwoo to identify him.

“Is this him?” Joshua asked.

Wonwoo moved his face so close to the screen that his nose was almost touching it, and just stared. 

He’d seen the polaroid Seungkwan carried with him enough times to recognise that the boy in the photo and the boy in the security feed were the same person. His mouth opened and closed a few times, struggling to form words. “Yeah, that’s him.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the gang's all here now!
> 
> thank you again to all the lovely people leaving comments. I never know how to reply since I overthink too much, but I read them all and I appreciate them a lot <3
> 
> sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I ran into a bit of a writer's block. I'll try and be a quicker with the next one.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I would get this chapter up quicker than the last one, but then life happened :(
> 
> sorry if you've been waiting for it. I'll do my best to update more frequently, but I won't always be able to. I'm definitely going to finish this though, so if it takes a while for me to update, don't worry, it's not abandoned. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter
> 
> thank you all for your patience xxx

 

 

“I really hope you know where you’re going.” Chan said from the backseat, where he was sitting squished in between Seokmin and Soonyoung, all of their long legs cramped and folded up so they’d be able to fit in Seungkwan’s too-small car.

Seungkwan glanced at Chan briefly through the rear mirror, “If you want to drive instead, be my guest.” 

In response, Chan held his hands up in a placating gesture. “I’m just saying. We’ve been going in circles for ages now. I really don’t think you know what you’re doing,” he pointed to the duck-tape laden windows, which were adorned with multiple large, ugly cracks, “and no offence, but your car seems like it’s about to fall apart. Maybe we should just turn around.”

There it was: the cheekiness that Seungkwan thought he’d missed, until he was stuck in an enclosed space with it for a number of hours. It was one of the qualities that made him respect Chan so much; he was headstrong, unafraid to speak his mind, and seemed so sure of himself in a way that Seungkwan could never be. But it was also one of the reasons they used to fight so much, even if their fights were always coloured with their mutual affection for each other. 

Seungkwan was about to snap out a witty retort, when Mingyu cut in. 

“No.” He said calmly from the passenger seat, voice steady, his arms folded across his chest. Chan looked appropriately chastised. “We should stick to the plan. We’re almost there. Right Seungkwan?”

“I think so.” Seungkwan replied. “That map wasn’t exactly geographically accurate, but I’m pretty sure I know where I’m going.”

But Seungkwan was less sure than he wanted to let on. He knew he was looking for a hill of some description, judging by the radio station’s location on the map, and there should be signs around that would hopefully point him in the right direction, but at this point Seungkwan was mostly relying on his intuition. It was too late to turn back around, though, even if they were lost. 

Either they’d find the radio station soon, or they’d run out of fuel and get stranded in the middle of nowhere. That was sure to go down well with the others. Especially Mingyu, who’d been stuck ina cycle of looking like he was on the verge of apologising to Seungkwan one minute, then wanting to have nothing to do with him the next ever since he’d told him of his plan to find Wonwoo.

Though the radio station had seemed like their best bet when he’d come up with the idea, Seungkwan wasn’t so certain anymore. Chan was right, the car wasn’t really that safe, and though they were travelling too fast for any infected to be an issue, if they ran out of fuel it would be a whole other story.

To make matters worse, Seokmin and Soonyoung were there, sitting patiently and supportively in the backseat, even though neither of them had any real reason to tag along on their poorly planned trip. They’d both turned down his offer to stay behind safely in the cabin, and now it felt like their trusting eyes were burning through the back of Seungkwan’s skull.

Just before he was about to cave in, and tell them all that he’d screwed up, and they were lost, Seungkwan blessedly caught sight of the words ‘radio station’ written across a road sign in flaking paint.

“See,” Seungkwan pointed to it triumphantly. “I told you you should have more faith in me.”

Letting out a quietly relieved breath, he let his hands relax from their tense grip on the steering wheel, then sped up a little. The other occupants of the car similarly relaxed, resuming their quiet conversations. All except Mingyu, who stayed silent.

Soon enough, they were turning onto a gravel road that led to the top of a small hill. They could already see the radio station peeking out between the gaps in the trees.

“How sure are you that these guys will be willing to help?” Soonyoung asked, looking far more anxious than he had just a moment ago. “I mean, I know _you_ helped us, but you’re the exception, not the rule. All the other survivors we ran into tended to shoot first and listen to questions never.”

Seungkwan snorted softly at that, then tried to send him a reassuring smile. “We’ve been listening to their show for ages now. They don’t seem like the kind of people who’d turn us away without at least hearing us out first.” 

Seungkwan liked to think there were at least a few good people left in the world, despite the fact that most of the people who’d survived that long did so by being ruthless and selfish. He prided himself on being a good judge of character, and even though he’d never met Seungcheol, Jeonghan or Jihoon, he felt like he could trust them. He hoped that wouldn’t turn out to be a mistake.

“Either way, we’re about to find out.” Seokmin chimed in, with a cheerfulness that seemed to ring slightly false.

Seungkwan pulled up in front of a tall fence topped with barbed wire and cut the engine. 

The fence bordered an old looking building that was covered in graffiti. Its fading paint contrasted greatly with the flowering weeds that almost completely covered its outside walls, and the building looked oddly beautiful in the early afternoon light.

“So. What now?” Chan asked from the backseat, when none of them made a move to get out of the car. “Do we, like, knock or something?”

Seungkwan thought silently to himself that that was a good question. Now that they had arrived, he had no idea what the next step was. From the looks of it, the only gate in the fence was chained shut, and the barbed wire topping the fence looked rusty but sharp, which would make trying to climb over it a very bad idea. Seungkwan couldn’t think of a good way for them to get in by themselves. That left them with only one option; they’d have to somehow convince one of the building’s occupants to let them inside. 

Seungkwan didn’t know how they were going to do that. Every survival instinct he had usually screamed at him to draw as little attention to himself as possible, and he’d have to do the opposite if he wanted to catch the attention of someone inside. 

He wracked his brain, eventually coming up with an idea. A stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.

“Wait here a second.” Seungkwan told them. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

Seungkwan walked up the driveway, gravel crunching underfoot, until he was metres from the gate. Then he crouched down and picked up a few of the large rocks strewn around the place.

He could feel the others’ eyes boring into the back of his head, probably wondering what the hell he was doing, but he didn’t let it deter him. He stood up again, rocks cradled in one hand, and scoped out the place for anything that looked promising. 

When he found what he was looking for, Seungkwan aimed carefully at the front entrance into the building. He sent one of the rocks soaring over the top of the fence, and it hit his target dead centre, making a large clanging noise upon impact with the metal door. 

He tried not to flinch at the noise, and waited for a few seconds, but he couldn’t see any sign that anyone inside had noticed him yet. Trying not to feel like some character in a romance movie throwing pebbles at their love interests’ window, Seungkwan aimed again and sent another rock flying. This time, he managed to hit one of the boarded up windows with a dull thud.

“What are you doing?” Mingyu hissed from the car, his door propped open now, staring at Seungkwan incredulously.

Seungkwan stubbornly raised a single eyebrow at him. “Do you have a better idea?” 

Admittedly, he did feel a little foolish, but he didn’t want to lose face, so he just turned back around and fired another rock towards the building.

He threw a few more rocks, and was just about the throw another one, when a figure came storming out from behind the radio station, almost out of nowhere.

“Do you have a death wish?” The figure asked, stalking towards the gate with a gun held in one hand, though it wasn’t aimed at Seungkwan yet. “This area is crawling with infected. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but you should leave before you draw them all here and get yourselves killed.”

Seungkwan almost immediately recognised his voice. But Jeonghan looked far more intimidating than Seungkwan had imagined from his softly spoken persona on the radio. 

With Jeonghan glaring at him expectantly, Seungkwan found himself at a loss of what to say. All his energy had been focused on getting them to the radio station in one piece, and now that they’d arrived, he was second-guessing himself. How would he explain the situation, and what would he do if it turned out they weren’t even able to help them find Wonwoo after all?

“You run the radio show, right?” Seungkwan asked, trying to come across as confidently as he could, despite his nervousness. “I know this is a lot to ask, but can you let us in? We need to talk to you and your friends.”

Jeonghan looked utterly baffled by what he’d said, as if Seungkwan was speaking a different language. Seungkwan wasn’t sure whether Jeonghan was surprised by his request, or the fact that someone actually listened to their show. 

“What? How do you know about that?” 

Seungkwan was about to reply to Jeonghan’s question, when Chan’s frantic voice sounded from behind them. 

“I think we have a problem.”

Seungkwan whipped around to find Chan standing halfway between them and the car, as if he’d started towards them, then stopped suddenly in his tracks. Seungkwan only had a split second to wonder what it was that had drawn Chan’s attention, before he was seeing it himself. 

Just inside the tree line, a few infected were shuffling around sluggishly, their feet dragging against the ground with every step. Seungkwan counted six of them in total, only about fifty metres away from where the others were still sitting in his car. It would only be a few minutes before the infected noticed them all and started running.

“Shit! Now you’ve done it,” Jeonghan gritted out through clenched teeth, already reaching to unlock the padlock on the gate. “Hurry up and get your friends over here before they notice us. I don’t want to see any of you get killed. It’d really ruin my day.”

Seungkwan immediately turned back towards the others, gesturing wildly to get their attention. Thankfully they got the message, and as quickly and quietly as they could, they abandoned the car and started moving cautiously towards Seungkwan and Jeonghan. But at that moment the infected finally seemed to catch on to their presence.

Faster than Seungkwan thought possible, they started running, shrieking as they went, their clumsy feet pounding on the ground.

It felt like Seungkwan was drowning, the amount of fear he felt at the sight of them. He’d gotten into life threatening situations before, and had had many close calls, but none were so directly his fault. If anything happened to the others, who he had put in danger with his own careless actions, he’d never be able to forgive himself.

“Come on, faster!” Seungkwan yelled out, not sure whether he was talking to his friends or to Jeonghan, who was fumbling with the lock on the gate.

The now terrified boys took off in a sprint. Chan was the first to reach them, but the others weren’t far behind. Their momentum caused them all to crash unceremoniously into the fence, sounding out a large clanging noise when they connected with it, one after the other, like hail on a tin roof.

The infected were almost upon them by the time Jeonghan finally got the gate open. As soon as he did, Seungkwan blindly reached out and pushed the first person his hand made contact with through the gap in front of him, the blood in his veins alight with adrenaline. The others immediately followed after them, darting through as fast as they could.

Mingyu was the last to make it to the gate. He was only seconds behind the others, but it was still enough time for the infected to catch up. One of them managed to grab onto Mingyu’s arm, clawing at his shirtsleeve with blunt fingernails.  


Before Seungkwan could react, Jeonghan was battering it with the end of his shotgun, distracting it enough to make it release Mingyu’s arm and stumble backwards. 

Seungkwan reached out and pulled Mingyu the rest of the way through, and together, they slammed the gate closed. At the speed of light, Jeonghan reattached the padlock to the chain and locked it closed again, skilfully avoiding the clawing hands that were trying to reach him through the small gap in the fence.

“Everyone, get back.” Jeonghan ordered, shoving them all away from the fence and towards the building, not that they needed to be told. They all wanted to put as much distance between the hideous creatures and themselves as possible.

“Are you okay, did it get you?” Seungkwan asked Mingyu desperately, once he had caught his breath. Seungkwan grabbed at Mingyu’s arm, trying to see if he was injured in any way, and hoping with his entire being that he hadn’t been.

Mingyu wrenched himself out of Seungkwan’s grip. “I’m fine, it didn’t even break the skin.”

Seungkwan stared at him with wide eyes. He didn’t know if Mingyu was so reluctant to let him see his arm because of his anger towards Seungkwan, or because the unthinkable had happened, and the infected had managed to draw blood, dooming him to a fate worse than death.

Jeonghan pushed forward, his eyes flaming with something that was a little like anger, and a lot like fear. He grabbed Mingyu with a surprisingly strong grip, though the other boy didn’t try to pull away.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Jeonghan said, staring Mingyu down. “If there’s a single chance you’re going to turn into one of them, I can’t let you inside. I’m not putting my family in danger.”

Mingyu didn’t protest this time when Jeonghan pushed up his sleeve.

Seungkwan almost didn’t want to look, but he forced his eyes to Mingyu’s arm. He barely stopped himself from bursting into relieved tears when all he saw was Mingyu’s unmarked skin, not a single sign of how close he’d come to death. Beside Seungkwan, the others whispered their relief.

Mingyu just looked at them all blankly.

“I hope you know how lucky you are.” Jeonghan seethed, aiming it mostly at Mingyu, but also at the rest of them. “You’re all idiots. What on earth were you thinking?”

Seungkwan couldn’t speak, the guilt clawing up his throat stopping him from opening his mouth.

When all that answered his question was silence, Jeonghan sighed. He studied them all for a few long seconds, then his expression softened. “Fine. Get inside then. I’m sure you have a good reason for coming here, and I’d very much like to hear it.”

Jeonghan turned away from them and knocked an elaborate rhythm on the door. It swung open, and he immediately stepped inside, the others following behind him cautiously.

Seungkwan almost jumped when a voice sounded suddenly right in front of them. 

“Picking up more strays?” It asked.

“Shut up Jihoon. I wasn’t about to leave them out there.” Jeonghan shot Jihoon a scathing look, though the other boy seemed unbothered by it. 

Jihoon was leaning up against the wall casually with his arms crossed over his chest. Everything about his posture screamed unthreatening, but Seungkwan was still slightly afraid of him for some reason. Maybe it was the way his eyes tracked them as they followed Jeonghan into the hall, like he was looking right through them. 

“Where’s Seungcheol? I don’t have the energy to interrogate this lot by myself.” Seungkwan felt Seokmin stiffen beside him when he heard the word interrogate, and Jeonghan seemed to notice too, because he shot Seokmin a quick look and continued. “Poor choice of words. None of you will come to any harm here, believe me.”

“Not unless you’re a danger to us, that is.” Jihoon emphasised, sending each of them a pointed look in turn. 

When his eyes reached Soonyoung, Jihoon seemed to linger slightly before moving on. Seungkwan wondered what it was about Soonyoung that made Jihoon pay him more attention. Maybe he looked more threatening than the rest of them.

“Stop scaring the poor children and answer my question.” 

Jihoon rolled his eyes at Jeonghan. “Seungcheol’s with the others.” 

Jeonghan nodded in acknowledgement, then indicated that they should all follow him with a flick of his wrist. 

They obediently fell into step behind him, trailing after him as he lead the way up the hallway, then into a maze of connected rooms. Seungkwan immediately noticed that what looked like barriers made of furniture were pushed to the side of some of the doorways, ready to be used to barricade the doors at the first sign of danger. 

Only a few rooms looked like they were in use, judging by the layer of dust in some of them, which they disturbed slightly as they walked. Seungkwan thought he saw a computer screen blinking through a doorway to his left, but Jihoon disappeared into that room and closed the door before Seungkwan could get a good look. 

The room Jeonghan eventually led them into was the warmest out of the one’s they’d seen so far, in both temperature and atmosphere. It was cluttered with belongings, and empty coffee mugs littered the few surfaces that weren’t covered with what looked like sheet music. 

In the corner, a few comfy looking couches and armchairs were pushed together. They currently sat three people who each turned to look at the newcomers with differing degrees of confusion.

“What did we miss?” One of them asked “Where did they all come from?"

Seungkwan immediately recognised that voice as well. Seungcheol looked exactly how Seungkwan had imagined him to look, which was an odd relief after the shock of Jeonghan’s quiet fierceness and Jihoon’s cautious scrutiny. 

The radio trio was now complete, so Seungkwan didn’t know who the other two people in the room were. They were huddled into each other, while Seungcheol sat apart from them, which made Seungkwan guess they didn’t know each other very well yet.

“Honestly Cheol. Didn’t you hear any strange noises? They were pretty hard to miss.” Jeonghan asked, shooting Seungkwan a stern look.

“I just thought Jihoonie was trying to learn the drums again or something.” 

Jeonghan rolled his eyes skyward, as if searching for the strength to put up with Seungcheol. “We’ll talk about your lack of observational skills later.” He said. “For now, we have guests. Guests meet Seungcheol. Seungcheol, meet guests. They know about our radio show.”

Seungcheol’s face lit up. “Really? That’s awesome.” Then, he turned away from Jeonghan to address them. “We didn’t think we had any listeners, but we hoped we weren’t wasting our time.”

“That’s not why we’re here.” Mingyu cut in. “In one of your shows, you mentioned a place called Eden. We need you to tell us everything you know about it.”

The two strangers on the couch stiffened, and Seungcheol and Jeonghan exchanged looks.

“If you think they have a cure, you’re wasting your time.” One of the boys on the couch said. His expression was oddly blank and the boy beside him seemed to subconsciously shuffle closer.

“We know. We don’t care about the cure, we care that they took our friend.” Seungkwan said, and every head in the room turned to look at him. He tried not to be intimidated by it. “We’re going to take him back.”

 

* * *

The room Vernon had been living in since he’d been brought to Eden wasn’t bare. The scientists had given him photographs to put on the walls - generic landscapes and boring abstract paintings - but he couldn’t help but miss the photos of his friends and family that he kept in his apartment. There was a tall wooden bookshelf full of novels to keep him entertained, and his soft, brightly coloured bedding and small collection of potted plants helped the room feel less bleak. But he could never call it home. His home was somewhere far away.

Sometimes the scientists would bring him things they found in their travels, like old MP3 players full of music, or board games that Joshua always cheated at. It helped relieve some of his boredom, but Vernon couldn’t help but notice that something vital was missing from his life. It wasn’t a new feeling, that empty space in his chest. He’d been carrying it with him for a long time, from the moment one of his coworkers turned to him with empty eyes and lashed out, clawing long streaks down his arm that still hadn’t fully healed.

He hadn’t known at the time what it meant, when he walked away from that as himself rather than another mindless monster. He hadn’t known at the time to keep it secret, either. He’d learned that lesson the hard way. 

If they found out he was immune to the virus, people either hated him with every fibre of their being, or wanted to keep him for themselves. It was a combination of both that eventually brought him to Eden. 

Vernon had been travelling with a group of scavengers for a while - the good kind that didn’t resort to unnecessary violence, or so he thought. There was an older woman with them, who seemed kind and reminded Vernon of his mother. Though he’d taken to hiding his arm under long sleeves, ever since an incident that almost cost him his life, he grew to trust her, and when she caught sight of his scars one day, he didn’t try to hide them. And when she asked Vernon about them, he told her the truth.

It was a secret kept just between the two of them, but somehow, the others found out. They were only envious at first, congratulating Vernon and telling him how lucky he was. But as their numbers slowly dwindled, they grew twisted with their grief. Their resentment for him only increased as time passed, and they spat venomous words at Vernon, telling he didn’t deserve his life when so many of their loved ones had lost theirs. They lashed out at him in their anger, only keeping him alive in the hopes they could somehow steal his immunity for themselves one day. 

Vernon didn’t know how Miran found out about him, or how she knew where to find him, but he was grateful she did. She rescued him from the scavengers and brought him to Eden.

She told him that he could help them find a cure, and for the first time, Vernon wasn’t filled with guilt for his immunity. Instead, he saw it as a gift. 

Miran told him he was they key to healing the world. All he’d have to do was stay there with them, and they would formulate a cure from his blood and test it on volunteers until they found one that worked. Then, they would mass produce it and administer it to all the survivors.

Vernon agreed without hesitation. He didn’t regret his decision, but he wished it wasn’t so lonely. 

Miran’s son Joshua was the only one who talked to him, besides the scientists’ inane chatter whenever they came to run tests or draw his blood. Even then, Vernon felt like there was something Joshua was keeping from him.  


He seemed to be holding himself back whenever he came to Vernon’s room to keep him company. There were more than a few times when he opened his mouth, as if to say something, then seemed to change his mind at the last minute. Vernon wasn’t dumb; he could see that it wasn’t anything good, but he pushed it to the back of his mind and trusted that Joshua would tell him when he was ready.

It wouldn’t be so frustrating, being kept locked up in his room, if Miran would just let him speak to the volunteers. At least they’d have something interesting to say that wasn’t the techno babble the scientists always spouted at him. He desperately wanted to hear about the state of the world outside, or even just stories about their lives, and what brought them to Eden. 

When he asked if he could meet them, though, Miran said it was too dangerous to let him get close people she didn’t trust. She told him that contact with outsiders may jeopardise their whole operation, and he had to stay safely in his room until they found a cure. So Vernon resigned himself to his fate of seeing the same faces every day, went through the same boring routine, and tried not to feel like he was drowning. Sometimes it seemed like Joshua was the only thing keeping him afloat.

Then something interesting happened. The day before, Joshua had come to speak to him at a different time than usual. There was an older man with him, who’d been watching over their interactions for a few days - something Vernon was also waiting patiently for Joshua to tell him about. 

This time, it was clear that Joshua _really_ didn’t want him there. Joshua distracted the man by ‘accidentally’ shattering the pot plant that usually sat on Vernon’s desk, and when the man scurried off to get something to clean it up, Joshua used the few minutes they had alone to tell him about one of the new volunteers.

His name was Wonwoo, Joshua said, and for some reason, Wonwoo thought he might know Vernon. 

Vernon hadn’t met anyone called Wonwoo, but it was a break in his routine, and he was curious enough that it didn’t matter whether Wonwoo was lying or not. He happily followed Joshua’s instructions to make sure he was visible to the security camera later that night.

That was all that he’d heard of it since then. Joshua didn’t come back the next day. 

Vernon tried not to be worried. Sometimes Joshua was just busy, and Vernon had to remind himself that his life didn’t revolve around their interactions, not like Vernon’s did. But he didn’t have to worry for long. 

That afternoon, when Vernon was trying to occupy himself by reading a book he’d already read twice, Joshua came bursting into his room, armed with an apologetic smile.

“Hey.” Joshua sounded out of breath. “Sorry I didn’t come yesterday. There was a situation.”

“It’s all good.” Vernon straightened where he sat on the bed, immediately putting his book to the side, not bothering to mark the page. “What kind of situation? Did someone set the lab on fire again.”

Joshua laughed, but there was an edge to it, like he was hiding tension behind his easy smiles. “Not this time. My mother found out I hacked into the security cameras, and lets just say, she wasn’t very happy about it.”

Vernon wanted to ask about that, but he had been dying to know the results of what had transpired two days before. “What happened with that volunteer. Wonwoo, right?” 

Joshua paused. “Iwas getting to that. We don’t have much time, and I’m technically not supposed to be here. But Wonwoo gave me a message for you,” Joshua crossed the room and sat down on the bed next to Vernon. “He wanted me to tell you Seungkwan’s alive, and he misses you.”

Vernon sat in stunned silence, running Joshua’s words through his head. They took a while to sink in, but when they did, Vernon felt them like a bucket of ice cold water; it was a shock, but at the same time, he felt like he had been living in a haze for the last few months, and had only just woken up. “Take me to Wonwoo. I have to talk to him.”

Joshua’s eyes went slightly sad. “You know I can’t do that. It’s not allowed.” He put a supportive hand on Vernon’s shoulder though, to weaken the blow of his words. “Who’s Seungkwan?”

Vernon couldn’t find the right words to answer that question. He had been forcing himself to not think of Seungkwan for a long time; it would hurt too much otherwise. But now those thoughts and feelings washed over him in an uncontrollable wave of loss and hope and love. 

“Seungkwan is my best friend.” Vernon finally answered, though those words didn’t sound like enough, even to his own ears. “I don’t care about what the scientists say. I’m sick of doing what they tell me to do. Take me to Wonwoo. Now.”

Joshua seemed shocked, but impressed, by Vernon’s abrupt change in personality. “I’ve been waiting for you to say something like that for a while.” He said. He stood up, and looked down at Vernon with an unreadable expression. He seemed to find whatever he was looking for in Vernon’s face, because then, he continued. “You were right. Someone did set the lab on fire. It should keep them distracted for a bit longer. I’ll take you to Wonwoo, then we’re going to have a long conversation about what it is they’re really doing here.”

Vernon guessed that that someone who set the lab on fire was Joshua. He expected himself to be surprised by that, but he searched himself and found that he wasn’t, not really. Vernon was suddenly struck by the fact that, for all the time they had spent together, he didn’t really know Joshua at all. But that was something for later.

For now, he had other questions he wanted answered.

 


	7. Chapter 7

When Vernon and Joshua stepped out into the hallway, Vernon was hit immediately with the smell of smoke, and it clogged his nose and stung his eyes.

Vernon looked to Joshua, wide eyed, but Joshua didn’t look even slightly concerned. Despite the fact that he had just been confronted by all the things he didn’t know about Joshua, Vernon still doubted he would start a fire that would actually put anyone’s life in danger, so he let himself relax.

The hallways were empty, and the few red flashing lights, as well as the constant drone of an alarm going off reassured them that everyone was probably occupied elsewhere. Vernon imagined they were all scrambling around the lab, trying to save their vials filled with experimental cures, or the data they had accumulated over the last few months and kept stored on their computers.

Even so, Joshua crept around silently, pulling Vernon along by his shirtsleeve, ducking around corners and into a maze of empty rooms, always staying just in front of him to make sure the coast was clear. At one point, Joshua pulled him into a stairwell and they were halfway down when the door a few floors above them opened.

“Is someone there?” A woman’s voice called out.

They were out of her line of sight, but Joshua didn’t even hesitate before he was jumping over the railing and dropping down soundlessly onto the landing just below. He motioned frantically up at Vernon to get him to do the same.

Vernon froze in panic, but when the sound of footsteps above them rang out in the otherwise empty stairwell, he was finally spurred into motion. He clambered over the railing much less gracefully than Joshua had, and climbed down, not dropping down onto the landing until he ran out of everything he could hold on to. He landed with a soft thud that he hoped wasn’t loud enough to alert the woman to their presence.

He didn’t have much time to worry. The next moment, Joshua was pulling him through a door marked with a large black letter X that Vernon tried not to be concerned about.

Considering how frantic they had been up to that point, Vernon started, surprised, when Joshua stopped dead in front of him, halting Vernon with a hand against his chest.

“Won’t that woman be searching for us?” Vernon darted his eyes nervously between Joshua and the door.

“Trust me. No one comes down here. At least not this way.” Joshua removed his hand, but then seemed to change his mind. He put it on Vernon’s shoulder instead and squeezed gently. “Listen. When we walk down this next hallway, I want you to stare straight at me, okay? Don’t look anywhere else. There will be noise, but just block it out and keep walking.”

“Why? What’s in there?” Confusion and a little bit of fear seeped into Vernon’s voice, despite his efforts to sound calm. He searched Joshua’s face for more information, but Joshua just looked stern, and maybe a little sad.

“Just trust me okay? I’m not trying to hide things from you, but now’s not the time.”

Vernon held eye contact with Joshua for a moment longer, but the looming threat of the woman in the stairwell made him cave quickly, and he nodded his head. “Okay. I trust you.”

Joshua smiled wryly at that, like maybe like he didn’t believe he deserved that trust.

Before Vernon could say anything to reassure him, Joshua was back to pulling Vernon along by the shirtsleeve, until they came to a stop in front of a different door. Hanging on hooks beside it were what looked like Hazmat suits, but Joshua ignored them.

Taking a deep breath, he dialled a flurry of numbers into the keypad beside the door, and when the red light above the keypad flashed green, he opened it.

The moment they were on the other side, he started pulling Vernon along behind him at a pace almost fast enough to be a run. Immediately, they were surrounded by harsh wheezing and shrieking sounds, and other vicious noises that made Vernon shrink in on himself, hiding behind Joshua like a little kid.

“Don’t look.” Joshua urged him.

Vernon tried to ignore the chaos around them, focusing his gaze firmly on the back of Joshua’s head. But out of the corner of his eye, he could see metal bars and rattling chains, and he couldn’t block out those terrible sounds.

Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, they finally reached the end and Joshua pulled him through into another hallway, slamming the door behind them.

Though he had followed Joshua’s instructions, Vernon still understood what they had just walked through.

It was a hall full of infected, trapped behind bars, and maybe some almost-infected too, judging by the sound of some of the hoarse cries that were almost sentences. Vernon was struggling to process it. Surely, the scientists must have collected them from somewhere outside, and brought them here to be cured. But how had they brought them such a large distance? And why were there so many of them?

“Are you okay?” Joshua asked, squeezing Vernon’s arm again to pull him out of his thoughts. Vernon nodded shakily in response. “I’ll answer all your questions soon, I promise. But we have to keep going. We don’t have much time.”

Vernon scrambled to keep up when Joshua started walking again.

“Where’s Wonwoo?” He managed to ask, even though it felt like there were rocks lodged in his throat.

“He’s not far.” Joshua told him. “Come on. This way.”

They walked to the end of a barren hallway, where Joshua took out a swipe card from one of his pockets. He held it against a scanner by the door until he heard a beep and the click of a lock.

The next hallway they stepped into consisted of a series of rooms that looked a lot like rooms in a prison, the ones where they kept people in solitary confinement. There were small screens next to the doors that showed footage of the inside of the rooms, but Vernon didn’t pay enough attention, still caught up in what he had just seen, to figure out how many of the rooms were actually occupied.

“He’s in here.” Joshua came to a stop in front of one of the doors, fingers flying across a keypad again.

This time, Vernon realised he wasn’t inputting a password. It looked like he was running a program. Vernon couldn’t make sense of the lines of code filling the screen, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered in that moment, was the person on the other side of that door.

Vernon took a deep breath. All the questions he had about Seungkwan started clattering around in his mind like marbles. Was he okay? Was he safe? Had he been eating well? Had he managed to avoid all the pain that Vernon had been through?

Joshua finished up what he was doing on the keypad, then scanned his keycard again, the door unlocking with a satisfying click.

He sent Vernon one last reassuring look before they both stepped into the room.

Vernon was struck by how small it was compared to his own. It looked incredibly lonely, with its bare walls and harsh lights. His earlier thought about prison cells came back to mind.

“It’s about time. You were supposed to bring me food hours ago.” Wonwoo was lying down on the bed, which was pushed to one side of the room, staring at the ceiling and bouncing a small rubber ball off of it. “What’s been going on today? I heard sirens.”

He turned to look at the door, but froze when he caught sight of Vernon hovering behind Joshua’s shoulder, the rubber ball dropping to the ground. It bounced a few times across the floor, then rolled to a stop, forgotten.

“Oh. It’s you.” Wonwoo pulled himself up to a sitting position, but he made no move to approach. He looked as unsure as Vernon felt, but still, he looked at Vernon like they’d met before. Like they were friends already.

“Seungkwan. Is he…” Vernon had no idea what to say to him. All the thoughts and questions that had just been flying through his head had disappeared, like water slipping through his fingers. “You’ve seen him?”

“Yeah. We met the day of the outbreak.” Wonwoo's eyes lit up, like he was remembering something. “He tried to get to you that day, you know? At the convenience store.”

“He did?”

Wonwoo’s words spread warmth all the way to the tips of Vernon fingers, and he felt some of his tension ebb away. They had been fighting at the time, but Seungkwan had still dropped everything to come get him, even though he’d told him not to.

“Yeah, and since then he’s never shut up about you. Every time we got to a new town we had to stop him from running off to go look for you.” Wonwoo was smiling at him, but his words still broke Vernon’s heart.

Seungkwan had never stopped looking for him. But what had Vernon been doing? This whole time, he could’ve been searching for Seungkwan. But he hadn’t even tried.

He’d convinced himself it was easier that way. It would have been better, he thought, to never see Seungkwan again then to find out he’d died. It would be better to not know, than to run into a group of infected one day and see the face of the boy he’d once loved staring back at him, with no recognition in his eyes.

He realised now how stupid that was. If he’d just tried harder, he could have been the one by Seungkwan’s side this whole time, instead of Wonwoo.

Vernon had learned better than anyone that you couldn’t change the past, so he shook those thoughts away.

“Where is he? He’s okay right? He’s safe?” He finally managed to ask, leaving his spot where he had been hovering by the doorway to approach Wonwoo. He was struggling to hold himself back from grabbing Wonwoo by the shoulders and shaking him until he told Vernon everything he knew.

Wonwoo looked down at his hands. “I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“I didn’t exactly choose to leave him.” Wonwoo said. He sounded confused, like he thought Vernon should already know that. But how could he? “Last time I saw him he was fine, but then I was taken, so I have no idea what happened after that.”

“Taken? What are you talking about?”

“Not now, Wonwoo.” Joshua’s voice broke urgently through the quiet of the room. Vernon hadn’t even realised Joshua was standing behind him until he felt his hand on his shoulder. Joshua tried to pull him back, like he wanted to drag Vernon out of the room, and away from Wonwoo’s words, but Vernon shook him off.

Wonwoo furrowed his brow, staring at Vernon like he was some kind of puzzle that he just couldn’t solve.

“He doesn’t know.” Wonwoo said quietly, almost to himself, but Vernon heard him anyway.

“What don’t I know?” When Wonwoo didn’t answer his question, Vernon rounded on Joshua instead. “What is he talking about Josh? What don’t I know?”

Vernon had never seen this look on Joshua’s face before. It was pure guilt, mixed with regret, mixed with something else Vernon couldn’t decipher.

“I’m sorry.” Joshua said. “I was going to tell you. I promise I was.”

“You’re scaring me.” Vernon said.

Joshua was struggling to get his next words out, his eyes wide and his mouth opening and closing, like a goldfish flopping around outside of its bowl. If the situation wasn’t so serious, if he didn’t feel so much overwhelming dread settling in the pit of his stomach, Vernon would have laughed at him.

When Joshua looked to Wonwoo for help, Wonwoo stood up and approached Vernon carefully, like one would a skittish animal.

“You know why I’m here right? So they can test the cure?” Wonwoo started. When Vernon nodded, he pressed on. “I guess it wasn’t going so well, and they ran out of test subjects. They wanted to continue their experiments, so they kidnapped me and brought me here.” Wonwoo trailed off then, looking like he wanted to say more, but like he wasn’t sure how Vernon would take it.

“Ran out? Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.” Vernon looked between Wonwoo and Joshua, his eyes wide and searching. When they didn’t reply his blood turned to liquid ice in his veins.

Joshua watched on helplessly as the wheels turned in Vernon’s head, as he connected the dots, and unravelled the web of lies that he’d been told.

“Then all those infected back there.” Vernon said. “They were ‘volunteers’? They were taken against their will and experimented on until they turned into monsters?”

The look on both of boys’ faces was answer enough, and Vernon felt like the world was ending for the second time.

“And you?” Vernon turned to Wonwoo, so concerned for him, now that he knew the truth. “What’s going to happen to you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been lucky, I think. Whatever they’ve injected me with hasn’t done anything so far.” Wonwoo told him. He looked like he didn’t want to hurt Vernon anymore than this conversation already had, like he wanted to protect Vernon from the truth, but it was too late for that. Vernon needed him to be honest with him, because he had been lied to for so long, and it seemed like Wonwoo could see that, because then he added, “But I don’t know how long that will last.”

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” Vernon said, the words coming out small and pained.

“None of this is your fault.” Joshua looked like he desperately wanted to pull Vernon into a hug, to comfort him. He’d always been a tactile person, reaching out with gentle hands, leaning into Vernon when they sat cross-legged on his bed. But he didn’t reach out this time, and Vernon didn’t want him to. “They were doing this before you got here, and they would’ve have kept doing it even if they hadn’t found you.”

Vernon just shook his head, looking at Joshua like he’d never seen him in his life. Maybe he never really had.

He felt like someone was twisting a knife in his chest, slashing away at the few shreds of happiness he’d managed to patch together over the last few months. He’d trusted Joshua, had begun to think of him as a brother, and that wasn’t easy for him to do after the things he’d been through. But all this time, Joshua been lying to his face.

He’d pretended to be his friend, hadn’t he? So Vernon wouldn’t want to leave. They all probably laughed about him behind his back. After all, he was just some dumb kid, too naive to realise what was happening right underneath his nose. While he was reading books and playing board games people were locked away in these rooms, suffering. All because of him.

Vernon started moving back towards the door, away from Joshua. Running out of whatever restraint had been holding him back, Joshua reached out to him, but Vernon evaded his touch like it would burn to let him close.

“You’re a part of this.” Vernon said.

Joshua sucked in a sharp breath like Vernon had slapped him, tears welling up in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but then the door to the room banged open. They all jumped, tearing their eyes away from each other to see who had just come into the room.

“What the hell were you thinking Joshua? What’s he doing down here?”

She was young, maybe only a few years older than Vernon. Her dark hair was pulled into a severe ponytail, but her features were soft, and her eyes were full of barely concealed worry. Vernon recognised her voice. She was the scientist they heard back in the stairwell.

“I’m going to take him back before anyone realises.” Joshua told her, looking like he was barely holding it together.

“They’ve already realised.”

Joshua sucked in another sharp breath. “How screwed am I?”

“It’s okay. They were pretty distracted. I just told them you took him somewhere safe in case the fire spread. I did manage to hide the fact that you were messing with the systems, though. So you’re welcome for that.”

“Thank you, Jina. I owe you one.” Joshua told her.

“Don’t thank me yet. Your mother wants to see you. Now.”

Vernon had no idea why Joshua suddenly looked so afraid. Miran was kind, had treated him gently and helped him recover when he was first brought to Eden.

That must have been a lie, too, Vernon realised with a start. She was in charge here, after all. She was the one running the experiments.

“Just get him back to his room safely.” Joshua said. “I’ll deal with my mother.”

Then Joshua left the room without looking back.

 

* * *

 

Seungkwan sat on one of the couches in the corner of the room, watching restlessly as Soonyoung and Seokmin played a card game with Seungcheol and Jun. After they’d all been introduced, the boys had immediately hit it off, getting along so easily, as if they’d met in the middle of university instead of in the middle of nowhere right after a near death experience. Now the four boys sprawled lazily across the floor, laughing and talking with one another like they didn’t have a care in the world.

Even though he wanted to, Seungkwan couldn’t bring himself to join in. He couldn’t get over the stilted conversation they’d just had, where Jun and Minghao had told them all about what exactly had gone on at Eden while they were trapped there. Seungkwan was still running it over and over through his mind.

None of it had sounded particularly good, but Minghao and Jun still looked okay, apart from the fact that Minghao winced anytime he moved too quickly. They were alive, and that was the important part. If they got to Wonwoo fast enough, he would be okay.

That brought them to their next problem. How were they going to get Wonwoo out?

Jun and Minghao remembered where Eden was, and they’d told them how they managed to escape; Eden got most of its food from an indoor farm run out of a warehouse somewhere nearby, and the boys had slipped by unnoticed and hidden in the back of the delivery truck while it was being unloaded.

But that wasn’t really of any help now. The old man driving the truck hadn’t been happy when he found them, immediately pulling over as soon as he'd overheard them talking quietly in the back. Seungkwan guessed that was how Minghao had gotten whatever injury he was now hiding beneath his shirt. So it wasn't like they could find the man again and ask him very nicely to let them tag along.

But they knew there was a way in. That was all they needed for now.

“How are you holding up?” Jeonghan asked, sitting down on the couch beside Seungkwan.

He leant against the side of the couch, folding his legs up underneath himself and looking the picture of comfortable elegance. His full attention was on Seungkwan, and he had to admit it was kind of intimidating, but still, there was something about Jeonghan that made him feel comfortable.

“I’m okay. Today has just been…”

“Long.” Jeonghan finished for him.

“That’s one way of putting it.” Seungkwan laughed.

“What’s his deal?” Jeonghan asked after a moment, pointing at Mingyu, who was sitting apart from everyone on the other side of the room, with his back pressed to the wall and his eyes faraway in thought.

“Ah.” Seungkwan said. He was wondering when one of the others was going to bring it up. Mingyu had been acting weird since they got there, all cold and distant, and Seungkwan hoped that they wouldn’t misjudge him. “Wonwoo’s his boyfriend. He took everything really hard. He’s not usually like this.”

Jeonghan’s eyes lit up in understanding.

At that moment Seungcheol’s laughter sounded loudly, and the defeated look on the other boys’ faces told Seungkwan that he’d probably just won whatever game they were playing. Jeonghan’s eyes lingered on him for a bit longer before he turned back to Seungkwan.

“I’ve been watching him.”

“Mingyu?”

Jeonghan made an affirmative noise. “I think he blames himself for what happened.”

“He blames me. He told me himself.”

“You still look like you want to go over there and talk to him. Maybe you should. It might help you both, I think.” Jeonghan said.

And for some reason, Seungkwan believed him. He looked a few times between Jeonghan and Mingyu, but Jeonghan’s encouraging smile helped him gather his courage, so he stood up from the couch, weaving his way around the boys sitting on the floor, and crossed the room to Mingyu.

Mingyu looked up at his approach, but he didn’t tell Seungkwan to go away, so he took that as a good sign and slid down the wall to sit beside him.

“You alright?” Seungkwan asked. “Do you want to talk about what happened outside? It was pretty scary. I thought for a moment that they'd gotten you."

Mingyu just shook his head, and Seungkwan tried to not feel disappointed. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up in the first place. He ought to go back and tell Jeonghan off for making him come over here.

He didn’t get up to leave yet though. Something told him he should wait and see if Mingyu changed his mind.

Minutes ticked by, and still they sat there, silently, together.

Even if Mingyu never spoke to him again, Seungkwan thought, it would be okay. As long as he was still here, like this. As long as they were still together.

“I could’ve died.” Mingyu said, finally breaking the silence. The words were pulled out of him like it was only just hitting him then. He suddenly looked pale, and shaky, and so much more like the Mingyu Seungkwan knew, instead of the angry and lost person he’d been for the last few days.

Seungkwan made a quiet noise of acknowledgement. He wanted to let Mingyu know he was listening, but he felt like if he said anything, it would break whatever spell had been cast to make Mingyu speak to him again.

“I could’ve died,” Mingyu continued, “and you still would’ve thought that I hated you.”

Seungkwan froze, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. “Don’t you?”

Mingyu made a small and wounded sound. “I could never hate you.”

Seungkwan's shoulders slumped, all the tension escaping from his body at once, leaving only relief behind.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t blame you for any of this. I shouldn’t have ever said that I did.” The words came out of Mingyu in a rush, like he’d been wanting to say them for days. Maybe he had.

But even if Mingyu didn’t blame him anymore, Seungkwan still blamed himself.

“It’s alright. It is kind of my fault.” He tried to stop the guilt from seeping into his voice, but it was still there, and the corners of Mingyu’s mouth tugged down into a frown.

“It’s really not.” Mingyu held eye contact with him, determination written across his face, looking like it was the most important thing in the world to him that Seungkwan believed him. “You said he fell asleep when he was meant to be keeping watch? That’s because I kept him up late talking. He wanted to sleep, but I could tell he’d been having a hard time, and I just wanted to…” Mingyu trailed off suddenly, like he was going to start crying. “It’s my fault.”

It hurt Seungkwan to know that the same feelings of guilt and regret that had been consuming him were running through Mingyu’s head as well. Even though he was older, even though he looked a lot tougher and stronger than Seungkwan, Seungkwan still felt the need to protect him. But he couldn’t protect him from himself.

Seungkwan did the next best thing and pulled him into a weird side hug. It should have felt awkward, but it just felt safe and warm.

Mingyu was quiet for a long time, before he said, “Maybe if I’d gone, it would’ve turned out differently.”

“You can’t know that Gyu. We can’t change what happened. Even though we wish we could.”

They were silent again, but the silence felt different this time. Jeonghan was right. It seemed like the conversation had taken away some of the pain that they had both been holding inside, soothing each other’s wounds, at least on the surface level. Seungkwan would have to remember to thank Jeonghan later, but for now, he just held Mingyu close.

“We’re going to get him back, right?” Mingyu asked. He sounded like a little kid, asking for reassurance, and it broke Seungkwan’s heart.

“Of course we will.”

Seungkwan did his best to believe his own words.

 

 

 


End file.
